The era of keyboard flip-phones is ending! The famous BlackBerry phone will no longer be produced by Blackberry as the world powers off old-fashioned keyboard phones and charges up digital, on-screen typing.

The BlackBerry phone may not be popular among people today, but looking back on the history of the BlackBerry phone, that was not always the case. For most adults, the keyboard phones were considered advanced technology back in the late 1900’s. In 1999, BlackBerry began its production of keyboard phones in America. In 2002, voice calling capabilities were added to the BlackBerry 5810. RIM (Research in Motion) becomes the most valuable company on the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) in 2007. The Toronto Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Canada that was established in 1852. The BlackBerry phone company also reaches 10 million subscribers by this time. In 2008, the stock market crashed and BlackBerry had trouble building momentum again, especially with the Apple iPhone gaining more and more interest. In 2009, BlackBerry launched an App World marketplace to compete with Apple; however, it quickly faded into the background and the solution to stop the growing Apple company was never solved. In 2013, the company began to consider other alternatives, including a sale. Now, in 2016, the BlackBerry company has decided to end all of its production of BlackBerry phones.

“The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners,” said CEO John Chen. Chen also noted that the company would need to have five million or more phones sold this year in order to stay in the hardware business. Later, that figure was revised to three million phones. Instead of struggling to produce their old-fashioned phone that is decreasing in popularity each year, BlackBerry decided to focus their efforts more on their software and security products. Chen commented that the company was on track to deliver 30 percent revenue growth in software and services for the full year.

The Blackberry phone was a part of the history and contributed to the development of phones all around the world. However, Apple and other modern companies are taking over the technological realm; Blackberry doesn’t have the speed to stay in pace with them. This is why this year, the world says goodbye forever to old-fashioned, keyboard flip-phones produced by the BlackBerry phone company.

For more information, visit http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/28/13088362/blackberry-stop-making-phones and http://globalnews.ca/news/860689/blackberry-timeline-a-look-back-at-the-tech-companys-history/