It is time to say goodbye to tactile keys. Canadian mobile maker BlackBerry has parted ways with the most successful device of its times – the BlackBerry Classic.
According to Ralph Pini, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for devices at BlackBerry, the company will no longer manufacture BlackBerry Classic.
Ralph Pini, COO and General Manager for devices, BlackBerry
For many years, Classic has been in our portfolio. It has been an incredible workhorse device for customers, exceeding all expectations. But, the Classic has long surpassed the average lifespan for a smartphone in today’s market.
The BlackBerry Classic was launched in late 2014 as a replacement of sorts to the BlackBerry Operating System-powered Q20, sporting the classic BlackBerry design, with built-in QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen.
BlackBerry sold just 500,000 phones globally in the first fiscal quarter this year – down from 600,000 in the previous quarter – reporting a $670 million loss which is its biggest loss in over two years.
Although much of the loss was down to restructuring charges, sales also fell to $400 million, down 39 percent from a year earlier.
We continue to actively support BlackBerry 10 with software updates and are on track to deliver version 10.3.3 next month with a second update to follow next year.
Last year, BlackBerry tried to revive its handset business by launching Priv smartphone running Google’s Android operating system. However, early sales figures have been disappointing.
It is not just WhatsApp that decided to end support for BlackBerry OS 10 services by the end of 2016, Facebook too is leaving the BlackBerry platform after announcing recently to discontinue support of its application programming interfaces (APIs) for BlackBerry.
