The end of BlackBerry hit Folha readers hard

The world has not always been as instantaneous as it may seem to young people. BlackBerry cell phones were pioneers in making this impression. From anywhere, anytime, they made it possible, at the beginning of this century, to exchange messages by email, the already almost nostalgic SMS (or Short Message Service, for its acronym in English), and access to applications.

This week, the brand announced the end of the service of corporate smartphones, which already have their place guaranteed in history. Now, what remains is nostalgia – this is what reports from readers of the leaf who shared their experiences.

For publicist Marcio de Araujo Silveira, 51, from São Sebastião (SP), the devices with small qwerty keyboards made a real revolution. Marco Antônio Fioravante, 51, adds that, in addition to speed, they were safe. “I still have my last cell phone from the brand”, says the lawyer from Brasília (DF).

It was using an instant messaging application famous at the time, Messenger, that Felipe Jardini, 40, celebrated the debut of his experience with BlackBerry, in 2008. “Do you know where I’m writing from?” moving taxi in the United States for his friend who was in Brazil. The journalist lived abroad and decided to acquire the ”top” of the time.

In reports, users suggest that current chat apps may be improved versions of the technologies presented by the company. The exchange of messages in real time and the confirmation of receipt were once great events, explains Jorge Lacerda, 55, from Florianópolis (SC). For him, software like WhatsApp are copies adapted to work on any device.

The company’s cell phones were so successful that, in addition to defending its pioneering spirit, there are those who believe that there have never been models capable of offering the same ease and comfort. Statistician Hafiz Gualda Farah, 52, from São Paulo (SP), is an example. Pedro Henrique Peluzo Ribeiro, 26, is also a fan of the devices and was taken by surprise by the news on Tuesday (4). “I bought one [modelo] Q10, which arrived yesterday [dia 5]”, says the accountant from Belo Horizonte (MG), who, by trusting the brand, had just invested in a phone for reservation.

With the boom in smartphone models, especially the popularization of touchscreen iPhones, BlackBerry was already changing the direction of its activities. Therefore, even fans of the brand, such as journalist Antonio Soares de Oliveira, 26, from Porto Alegre (RS), admit that without the implementation of new technologies there is no reason to continue with it.

For those who regret the extinction of the favorite devices of an entire era, retired Rui Osvaldo Gatto, 75, from Campinas, São Paulo, warns: it will not pass. Used to working with BlackBerry support, he has suffered from its absence before. “When the brand had problems, we were forced to leave the service, which was sorely missed on a daily basis. Cell phones work, but not with their agility”, he says.

In 2020, the company had already stated that it would end the legacy services of the BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS operating systems and devices that run them would no longer be supported. The company even said the devices would not be able to reliably receive or send data, make phone calls or send messages. The time has come to leave this hit behind, with nostalgia or not.