BlackBerry has announced that the company will continue to “support” its BlackBerry 10 and BBOS platforms for at least two more years. In reality, BlackBerry 10 and BBOS are now officially EOL.
While this will come as no surprise to most BlackBerry users, it will bring a little clarity to those who have obstinantly stuck with the older platforms and hung on to the belief that BlackBerry would revive the operating systems at some point in time.
The company finally ended the silence and speculation surrounding the switch to Android and BBOS users now know they will only have two years of network access.
While BlackBerry didn’t state it specifically, their statement quite clearly clarifies that there will be no more BlackBerry 10 devices, a dream that the most stubborn and blinded BlackBerry users have clung on to.
BlackBerry said,
“A little more than a year ago BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO, John Chen, declared that BlackBerry’s transition to a software company was complete. And still, in an era where consumers have been “trained” to upgrade their phones every 18-24 months, it is a testament to the durability of our designs and brand loyalty that there are still millions of people actively using BB10 and BBOS devices, many of which are already more than ten years old.”
“We manufactured our last BB10 and BBOS devices in 2015 and in the years since we have received many questions about our plans for ongoing support. First, we want to say thank you for your continued interest and passion for all things BlackBerry. Second, we want to acknowledge that we know your productivity relies upon the security, reliability, dependability, durability, extended battery life, and ease-of-use we designed and built into each handset. Third, we want to reward your loyalty by committing to providing you with at least two full years of additional support for BB10 and at least two full years of BlackBerry network access for BBOS devices.”
For some time, the company has been subtly trying to entice users off the older OS’s and switch to the newer Android devices. With this in mind, they have now announced they will be offering a trade-up program for users to trade-up their current BlackBerry devices to the latest BlackBerry KEYone or BlackBerry Motion.
However, the company failed to provide further details on this trade-up program but did state that would include the BlackBerry Priv.
“As a further show of our appreciation and gratitude, we are working with our partners at BlackBerry Mobile to offer a trade-up program that will provide you with a significant discount and incentive to upgrade your current BlackBerry device to a new BlackBerry KeyOne or Motion, both of which are the world’s most secure Android smartphones.”
The company warned that although it will continue support for BlackBerry 10 and network access for BBOS, it will close certain ancillary services such as the BlackBerry World app store in 2019, the BlackBerry Travel site in 2018, and the Playbook video calling service in 2018.
“While we are pleased to announce continuing support for BB10 and BBOS users for at least another two years, current device owners should be aware that we will be closing some ancillary services such as the BlackBerry World app store (12/31/2019), the BlackBerry Travel site (February 2018), and the Playbook video calling service (March 2018).
Customers who upgrade to a new KeyOne or Motion won’t miss a beat as they’ll have immediate access to the rich universe of apps in the Google Play store without compromising on either security or their desire for a physical keyboard.”
