What happened to BlackBerry? The full story (2026)

BlackBerry was the top smartphone in America until 2010

At its peak, BlackBerry was the default phone for anyone who needed email on the go. In September 2010 there were almost 22 million BlackBerry users in the US, 37% of the 58.7 million smartphones in the country (comScore). That fall the company had 36 million subscribers worldwide.

The company behind it was Research In Motion (RIM), founded in Waterloo, Ontario, in 1984. Its first BlackBerry, the 850 pager, arrived in 1999 with push email from Microsoft Exchange. Encryption and a server product for IT departments made it the phone governments and banks trusted.

The slide started fast. Apple’s installed base in the US passed BlackBerry in April 2011. Android had already passed it within a year of January 2010. By February 2016, only 1.59 million of 198.9 million US smartphone users were on a BlackBerry, or 0.8%.

Why BlackBerry lost

BlackBerry lost because it was late to touchscreens and apps, then late again with its replacement software. The keyboard and secure email that won business buyers mattered less once phones became app machines for consumers.

Four problems stacked up:

Apps went elsewhere. Developers built for the iPhone and Android first. BlackBerry phones were seen as less appealing to consumers, and its browser lagged behind.
Work stopped choosing the phone. As companies adopted bring-your-own-device policies, employees picked iPhones and Android phones and IT had to support them.
The new platform came too late. RIM bought QNX to rebuild its software. In March 2011, co-CEO Jim Balsillie talked up “powerful new BlackBerrys” for early 2012. That date slipped twice, and BlackBerry 10 didn’t launch until January 30, 2013.
Products that stumbled. The PlayBook tablet went on sale on April 19, 2011, was criticized as unfinished, and led to a $485 million inventory writedown. A multi-day BlackBerry outage in fall 2011 hit millions of users just as the iPhone 4S launched.

Gadget Daily News covered that same March 2011 earnings call. Balsillie gave a long, hard-to-follow answer about the PlayBook running Android Gingerbread apps to close the app gap. It’s a good snapshot of the problem: BlackBerry was arguing about app counts while buyers had already moved on.

Year	US smartphones in use	BlackBerry share
January 2010	42.7 million	43% (18 million)
September 2010	58.7 million	37% (almost 22 million)
February 2016	198.9 million	0.8% (1.59 million)

Figures are comScore data. September 2010 is from comScore’s own release; the other two rows are comScore figures as reported by Wikipedia.

From RIM to a software company, 2012–2016

The leadership changed first, then the business. On January 22, 2012, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepped down as co-CEOs and Thorsten Heins took over. RIM reported its first net loss in years that March.

At the BlackBerry 10 launch in January 2013, RIM renamed itself BlackBerry. The new Z10 and Q10 didn’t turn things around. In September 2013 the company announced 4,500 layoffs and a C$1 billion operating loss, and in November it brought in John Chen as CEO.

Chen pushed the company toward security software. BlackBerry tried Android with the Priv in late 2015, then rebadged a TCL-made phone as the DTEK50 in 2016. On September 28, 2016, it said it would end all internal hardware development and leave design and manufacturing to partners.

The licensed phones, and the end in 2020–2022

For four more years, other companies made BlackBerry phones under license. TCL got the main deal in December 2016 and built the KeyOne, Motion and Key2. The Key2 launched in 2018 at $649 with Android 8.1, and the cheaper Key2 LE ($399) was the last BlackBerry phone (Wikipedia).

In February 2020, BlackBerry Mobile said TCL would stop selling BlackBerry phones on August 31, 2020, and would support existing devices until February 2022 (Business Insider). An Austin startup, OnwardMobility, then licensed the name to build a 5G keyboard phone. It shut down in February 2022 without releasing anything, after reports that its license was canceled (Engadget).

BlackBerry then sold the old phone patents. In March 2023 it agreed to sell about 32,000 patents, mostly on mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking, to Malikie Innovations for up to $900 million, with $170 million in cash at closing (BlackBerry press release).

What BlackBerry does in 2026

As of October 2026, BlackBerry describes itself as two divisions: BlackBerry Secure Communications and QNX. BlackBerry says QNX software runs in more than 275 million vehicles. The secure communications side sells encrypted calling and messaging, device management (BlackBerry UEM) and the AtHoc alert system to governments and regulated industries.

It has shed other pieces along the way. In December 2024 it sold Cylance, the security firm it bought for $1.4 billion in 2018, to Arctic Wolf for $160 million (TechCrunch). The CEO is John Giamatteo. BlackBerry still trades on the NYSE and TSX as BB.

Can you still use an old BlackBerry?

Not as a phone, if it runs BlackBerry’s own software. BlackBerry says devices on BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier no longer reliably work for calls, texts, data or 911 since January 4, 2022, over carrier or Wi-Fi.

The Android BlackBerrys are different. BlackBerry says they weren’t affected by the shutdown, so a Priv, KeyOne or Key2 can still make calls if your carrier accepts it. They’re stuck on old Android versions and get no updates, so treat them as unpatched devices.

Your phone	Examples	Works as a phone?	What’s gone
BlackBerry OS 7.1 and earlier	Bold 9900, Curve 8520, Torch 9800, Pearl, Storm	No, not reliably	Calls, SMS, data, 911, BBM, BlackBerry World, PIN messages
BlackBerry 10	Z10, Q10, Passport, Classic, Leap	No, not reliably	Same, plus BlackBerry Link and Blend
PlayBook	PlayBook, PlayBook 4G LTE	No, not reliably	Over-the-air services, BlackBerry ID
BlackBerry Android	Priv, DTEK50, KeyOne, Motion, Key2	Yes, if your carrier accepts it	Security updates (TCL support ended February 2022)

Device lists are from BlackBerry’s end-of-life FAQ.

A few things also stopped for everyone. BlackBerry-hosted email addresses (@myblackberry.com and carrier versions) and their forwarding ended, even on iPhone and Android. Consumer BBM ended too. BlackBerry says Password Keeper data on BlackBerry 7.1 and earlier is stored on the phone, so you can still open it and copy entries out by hand.

If you want a keyboard phone now

You can still buy a new phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard, but not from BlackBerry. Nothing here was tested by us; these are the two current options we found, with prices as of October 2026.

Phone	Status	Price (Oct 2026)	Notes
Unihertz Titan 2	On sale	$489.99 sale price ($499.99 list)	4.5-inch square screen, Android 15 with Android 16 update offered, 5G
Clicks Communicator	Preorder, shipping from December 2026	$649	Compact Android phone, 12GB RAM, 4,350 mAh battery

Unihertz says the Titan 2 is authorized on AT&T and Cricket, and that Verizon SIMs must be activated in a Verizon-certified phone first. Clicks also sells keyboard cases for recent iPhones, Pixels and Razrs if you’d rather keep your current phone. We’d pick the Titan 2 if you want something you can buy today, and wait for reviews of the Communicator before paying $649 for a phone that hasn’t shipped.

BlackBerry wasn’t the only early leader the iPhone and Android squeezed out. HTC went through a similar fall, covered in what happened to HTC. And if you’re weighing Android phones, whether Android is still open source explains what’s changed for alternatives and custom software.

What to do next

Check your phone’s software: Settings or Options > About. If it says BlackBerry 7 or BlackBerry 10, it won’t work reliably as a phone, so plan a replacement.
Copy anything you want to keep from an old BlackBerry, such as Password Keeper entries, photos and contacts, while it still powers on.
If you used a @myblackberry.com address, update any account still tied to it, since mail to it no longer arrives.
If you still use a BlackBerry Android phone, don’t do banking on it. It hasn’t had a security update in years.
For a keyboard phone today, compare the Unihertz Titan 2 and the Clicks Communicator, and check carrier compatibility before you buy.

What happened to BlackBerry?