Blackberry Classic officially discontinued

Blackberry launched the Blackberry Classic smartphone with the BlackBerry 10 OS in 2014 and saw decline in sales of this device as well as other BlackBerry OS devices. Then the company launched its first Android powered smartphone Priv with a slider keyboard and other premium features with a helfy price tag. Blackberry also said that it has sold roughly 500,000 smartphones in the last reported quarter with poor sales and profits. Blackberry has now confirmed that the BlackBerry Classic smartphone is now discontinued.

This might be the bad news for some of the Blackberry fans who loved the unique BlackBerry features. “To keep innovating and advancing our portfolio, we are updating our smartphone lineup with state of the art devices. As part of this, and after many successful years in the market, we will no longer manufacture BlackBerry Classic.” said Ralph Pini, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for Devices at BlackBerry in an official blog post.

Further he added,” For many years, Classic (and its BBOS predecessors) has been in our portfolio. It has been an incredible workhorse device for customers, exceeding all expectations. But, the Classic has long surpassed the average lifespan for a smartphone in today’s market. We are ready for this change so we can give our customers something better – entrenched in our legacy in security and pedigree in making the most productive smartphones.”

BlackBerry may be focusing on launching more Android device from now but Ralph Pini has confirmed that it will continue to support its BlackBerry 10 operating system with software updates and a new version 10.3.3 will be released next month followed by another update next year. Blackberry Classic was launched with a smaller 3.5-inch display, 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM 8960 processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB storage, up to 128GB microSD card storage, 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front camera and a 2515 mAh removable battery.

Blackberry is expected to launch two new Android smartphones this year. Some of the new Android powered Blackberry devices were leaked in the past that includes BlackBerry Hamburg and BlackBerry Rome followed by three more devices Argon, Neon and Mercury. BlackBerry Hamburg was spotted at GFXBench with the Snapdragon 615 SoC, 3GB RAM and 5.2-inch display.