BlackBerry belt holsters won’t be popular for much longer on Capitol Hill, one of the last strongholds for the Canadian smartphone maker.
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Additionally, BlackBerry had reached out to networks like AT&T and mentioned that it would be discontinuing devices on OS 10. In other words, ones without physical keyboards.
In the meantime, staffers are still allowed to order the following BlackBerry devices: the Classic, the Passport, the Z30, the Z10, and the Q10. As Fortune notes, BlackBerry is only pulling the plug on the BlackBerry Classic model, and will continue to sell other BlackBerry 10 smartphones “in most markets (so) customers should check with their carriers for availability”.
The news was announced by COO Ralph Pini in a blog post, in which he discussed the BlackBerry Classic and touched on BlackBerry’s plans for the future.
Sure, BlackBerry could eventually release an Android-powered, candy-bar style phone with a “real” BlackBerry keyboard.
The BlackBerry Classic has been described as a callback to everything that makes BlackBerry great. The authorities had emphasized in the past to use these phones due to the security features it provides.
A previous report highlighted that BlackBerry will discontinue BlackBerry 10 running devices, which could be a reason for the U.S. Senate to look for alternatives.
One curious wrinkle to the story is that BlackBerry itself is denying the claims that it is planning to stop producing BlackBerry OS 10 devices.
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“Despite my best efforts to tell the world I’m a lot more than just a phone company, every question I ever get is about phones”, Mr. Chen told reporters in June. “We are focused on software updates for BlackBerry 10, with version 10.3.3 scheduled for next month, and a second update to follow next year”, reads a statement from BlackBerry, as reported by CrackBerry. The handsets’ signature textured keyboards held appeal, too – due to their unmatched ability to ease the many cumbersome secretarial demands of Senate staffers – as did the Blackberry’s robust privacy features. Most consider the Priv the last chance for the company, and poor sales suggest that it will likely be the final coffin nail for BlackBerry when it comes to making its own hardware.
