BlackBerrys Singing At the Dead of Night

The BlackBerry is dead. Long live the BlackBerry. With the recent announcement by the company that gave humanity the Dark Prince of handheld devices, that it will be decommissioning its operating system from January 4 - thereby saying sayonara to any network, WiFi and phone included - it is the final Qwerty for the iconic phone. To be fair, BlackBerry had been messaging since 2020 about transitioning to becoming a software company and decommissioning all its legacy services. But believers - by now almost all tapping on the glass front of their iPhones and Androids - were really waiting for a Beatles reunion. By the time this week came, hardly anyone used a BlackBerry for any purpose other than a nostalgic paperweight.

Like the typewriter, audio cassette and West Indian fast bowling, the BlackBerry had its heyday - and, hey, what days. At its peak in September 2013, when there were 85 million subscribers - in 2009, it owned 20% of the global smartphone market - it was like the late Roman Empire: glorious, tactile, decadent and containing the seed of its own extinction in the face of the barbarous iOS and Android hordes. For many, using a BB was the ultimate sign of success/maturity, for others, it had the aesthetic grandeur of a Steinway grand piano. With its passage, our opposable thumbs will never be the same again.