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.
The platform was clearly winding down for a number of years now, ever since BlackBerry moved to Android, but it’s still yet another casualty on the road towards the iOS-Android duopoly. I know a surprising number of people here on OSNews absolutely adored their BB10 devices, and I’m sad I never managed to purchase a Passport, the most enticing BB10 device to me.
I’m still keeping an eye out for an affordable used Passport, because I definitely want to write about BB10 in more detail in the near future.
I remember getting the Z10, one of the first BB10 devices that came out. Everyone made fun of me for dropping $500 on a Blackberry, but the device and the OS were shockingly good, better than iOS or Android in my personal opinion. The apps, of course, were a disaster and eventually forced me to move on, but I still miss that phone.
End of an era!
Same here. Nobody understood why I bought a Z10. I was just curious about how BB10 performs (knowing that there’s QNX underneath). I am now using an iPhone, because I do need easy access to certain things (like Spotify, without a hack). But honestly, if there were software…BB10 was seriously a mobile OS you could love. It looked and performed nice, it was alternative in many ways but still not too alien for anyone coming from any platform. My Z10 now serves my mother (she’s soon turning 60) and she, while not being to technical, managed to use it properly from the very beginning.
I absolutely loved my Playbook – I used it more than my iPad at the time. It’s really a shame they couldn’t make that work. Damn good platform.
It seems that some people are still actively using their Playbook:
( https://forums.crackberry.com/blackberry-playbook-f222/suggest-uses-… )
Unfortunately, the Playbook also depends on the BlackBerry World app store for its apps and this service is said to end on 12/31/2019. So, essentially two more years of useful life for all Playbooks still out there.
It seems that the world of technology is always ultimately tending toward a duopolies, or a triopoly with a weak third member.
For phones and tablets: Android and iOS.
For desktops and notebooks: OS X and Windows plus Linux and derivatives.
For central processing units: ARM and AMD/Intel.
For graphics processing units: AMD (ATI) and NVIDIA.
Will it ever be possible to prevent this with the next technology advance?
No. Only the strongest win. What is alternative to x86/ARM which are basically easily interchangeable to each other with source code – PowerPC, SPARC or IA64 which nobody knows (except few people – who cares about them) or some obscure CPUs with 9-bit bytes and 29-bit integers ? OpenSauce CPU & GPU cores are whopping 1990’s state of art. We’ve spent billions of dollars on perfecting toolchains, debuggers, kernels and other development software. I don’t think other company can repeat this easily nowadays.
About BB: wow O.O, who saw that coming ?
To muddy the waters a bit, both AMD and Intel have experimented with ARM compatible CPUs in their server and mobile/embedded lineups recently.
https://wccftech.com/intel-arm-10nm-22nm-collaboration/
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/221282-amds-first-arm-based-proc…
if you want a password, i have one to sell… 200$ canadian…
I loved my silver edition passport, the BB10 OS is by far the best OS in terms on usability.
I’m now on iPhone X, and that’s thanks to BB10 OS not being supported anymore and Apple ‘borrowing’ all the gestures from the BB10…
Anyway, the new apple device is the best of both worlds; I really believe that BB could have had a great future is they listened to their customers more.
Edited 2017-12-18 01:57 UTC
Thom,
If you can convince one of the sellers to ship to the Netherlands, you can get one on Swappa for US$125 or so right now. That’s where I sold mine, and if I’d known at the time you wanted one I certainly would have contacted you before selling it.
Swappa is much safer than eBay for phones as they verify the IMEI isn’t blacklisted (though I think that only affects US carriers).
https://swappa.com/buy/blackberry-passport-unlocked
Mediamarkt Germany is selling new Passports for 149 EUR. Certainly a much better offer than 200 CAD or 125 USD plus shipping plus import sales tax for a used one.
I remember that when I got my first blackberry I could not afford a data plan with my carrier. Using it as a wifi device phone I became a second class citizen of the Blackberry community. There were apps that was blocked to only worked with a data plan and not with wifi. I think that this got improved later but at that time Android phones just showed up and I switched.
Kind of the opposite of what we see now, where they try their hardest to block mobile data use for certain things and try to force you to use wifi instead. There are ways around it, but still.
First off, I have tried iPhone and Android (even BB Android DTEK, and Android with BB Apps)
All have disappointed me.
I went from a Curve to the Z10 to Z30.
I am still rocking the Z30 and when I show people how the HUB works on BB10, they are always impressed. And it makes me sad that this level of efficiency is only available on a phone that is over 4 years old.
It works where nothing else does, thanks to its Paratek Antenna.
I can access files on it via windows\samba by just \\z30 from my pc and entering a password. Do android and iOS have native access like that?
First and foremost, its my phone for work. And since I am self employed I have to have something that can handle about a half dozen email accounts and calls from customers, etc etc.
Where it falls short, I have made up for it by running a 3G/LTE tablet for the literal 3 or 4 android apps that kinda make my life a little easier. (basically just for billing and some contractor portal apps)
Having facebook off my work phone is actually a good thing. lol
I still consider BB10 vastly superior for you know, making phone calls, and dealing with my work flow.
HUB on Android is NOT there. It will not respect a simple mailto: link with ?Subject formatting, nor does it make addresses clickable to open in maps like BB10 does.
I still use my PlayBook !! Its faster than my iPad mini. Stereo Speakers and I can stream to it from my DLNA server. Check the weather and web is still VERY useable with Origami Browser. No notifications or email on it, because its my bedside device / alarm clock.
Thom – If you want to test some BB10 devices, I have some extra devices and accessories I would be willing to ship over. Even the integration the old BB Curve had with the PlayBook was very enjoyable to use.
BB10 just feels “right” when I use it.
Here is the danger of App Stores. Once closed all the devices relying on it become useless and more landfill!
And we have Microsoft trying to force everything to Windows Store only. Trouble is, with Microsoft’s record they’re likely to close that too in future same as they do everything.
Best to stay clear of “anything store” where possible!
Even if they offered the basic apps to keep the device useful. Generally apps are pretty easy to sideload on BB