BlackBerry is shutting down service for its once-popular corporate smartphones, which were carried by executives, politicians, and fans in the early 2000s.
The phones, which boasted a tiny QWERTY physical keyboard, pioneered push email and the BBM instant messaging service.
One of its most famous customers is former U.S. President Barack Obama, who was questioned in 2016 about whether he should give up his BlackBerry and switch to an unnamed smartphone.
Users abandoned Blackberry following the emergence of Apple’s touchscreen iPhone handsets and competing Android phones.
The firm has recently expanded its business to include cybersecurity software and automobile embedded operating systems.
Tributes were common on social media. One Twitter user wrote, “It was a fantastic machine. I hope the firm’s phones are resurrected.”
In 2020, the firm announced that it would be taking measures to retire legacy services for BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS operating systems and devices running on them.
A US judge on Monday denied BlackBerry’s request to throw out a lawsuit alleging that it deceived shareholders by exaggerating the performance and profitability of smartphones running its BB10 OS, saying the class-action case might go to trial in the fall.