It's the end of an Era! (We may have THOUGHT the end of this specific era already happened, but it just became official today.) 

The ever iconic original BlackBerry phones will no longer be functional. The company has announced that they are going to stop supporting them, ending the technologically alternative lifestyle of that one person you know. While the BlackBerry itself has been bordering on out of business since 2016, this official end, which will happn on Tuesday, puts the period on a sentence that had long been written. 

Early on, from the 1990s to the early 2000s, the BlackBerry phone was THE phone to have. According to an article on Muscatine Journal, "The devices became a status symbol and fixture for people on Wall Street, celebrities like Kim Kardashian, and even former President Barack Obama, thanks in part to its great reputation for security. At its peak in 2012, BlackBerry had more than 80 million active users." With it's easy to use keyboard and, at the time, high tech software, it was the go to device for business professionals and celebrity personalities alike. 

However, with the rise of the iPhone, the once cutting-edge BlackBerry began to fade into technological oblivian. The touchscreen and other advancements that were offered by the iphone caused the BlackBerry to pale in comparision. Even though BlackBerry attempted to adapt and change in order to compete with the Apple product, the adaptations did not suit the BlackBerry in an effective way. 

We are sad to see the BlackBerry come to an end, but it had a great run!