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Johannesburg - Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to honour and mourn our friend, our companion – BlackBerry.
Born September 18, 1996 BlackBerry was called to rest September 28, 2016 – aged 20 – after a long battle with relevance since 2013.
On Monday with a deep heave of a last breath, BlackBerry launched the DTEK50 Android smartphone but even then it was too late – BlackBerry passed away on Wednesday.
BlackBerry lived a fulfilled and illustrious life, capturing the hearts of many and even becoming the number one smartphone in South Africa.
South Africa's BlackBerry mother, managing director Alexandra Zagury, once said that they had been proud of BlackBerry, which offered some South Africans their first ever access to the internet.
After a string of successful smartphone launches, BlackBerry’s condition began deteriorating after being diagnosed with bad cases of Android, while showing symptoms of iPhone-itis.
But when other smartphone manufacturers said: “We don’t need keys any more!” and opted for slate-form devices, BlackBerry had the courage to say: “No! We still need the keys.”
After coming to the realisation that keys needed to be removed, it was then that BlackBerry announced the Z10 device. But they decided that they could not let go completely of the keys and launched the Q10 as well.
But the mistake BlackBerry made that ultimately led to its death, especially in South Africa, was to launch the Z10 and Q10 without BIS.
Many people remember BlackBerry, growing to both love and loathe the device brand at some point in time.
Lest we forget, there were contract renewals with MTN, Vodacom and Cell C which drew us back to the Canadian brand, through promises of “free internet” through BES and BIS.
BlackBerry is survived by its partner BlackBerry Messenger, who will continue to live in the Google Play store and iTunes after breaking the internet with a launch for other operating systems after 2013.
Let’s take this moment to reflect of the life of BlackBerry with some of our memorable devices below:
The BlackBerry Curve 8520, 2009
The BlackBerry Bold 9900, 2011
BlackBerry Torch 8910, 2011
BlackBerry Z10, 2013
BlackBerry Passport, 2014
BlackBerry Priv, 2015
BlackBerry DTEK50, 2016.
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