If you’re a BlackBerry Classic user, there’s some good news for you. BlackBerry has announced that it will be supporting the BB10 operating system for at least another two years. The long-defunct OS will continue to be supported for additional period of time.
BlackBerry 10 operating system was released back in 2012 and it was BlackBerry’s last hope of creating a modern smartphone platform like iOS and Android. The goal for BB10 was for all major apps to be offered on the platform and make BB10 a rightful contender to Android and iOS, but even support for Android apps, the software was given up on in 2015 with the release of BlackBerry Leap. The Leap was the last device to run the OS before the company switched things over to Android.
It’s a bit surprising that people are still using BB10, to be honest. There’s the option for KeyOne, which runs Android and was released last year. The company also announced plans for a new “trade up” program that allows customers to trade in their older BlackBerry devices and upgrade to a KeyOne or Motion instead.
While BB10 will receive support for at least another two years, BlackBerry is already planning to shut down parts of the software earlier. BlackBerry World App Store is set to close on December 31st, 2019. BlackBerry Travel site will close its doors in February 2018, and the PlayBook video calling service will also closing its doors in March 2018.
If I were a BB10 user, I would make the switch to KeyOne or Motion soon so that you’re catching onto things early. Oh, there’s also the fact that BlackBerry Priv, the company’s first Android device, is no longer receiving security updates either.
