Is the BlackBerry Dead? : The New Yorker

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"But how much longer is the BlackBerry likely to exist before it, like plenty of other once-vaunted devices, gets relegated to some quiet corner of the Computer History Museum? Certainly, the new owners could potentially milk BlackBerry’s existing customers for revenue as long as they can, even if they don’t go looking for new ones. As of June, BlackBerry had seventy-two million users—more than twice the population of Canada, for comparison. It could take a long time for that number to dwindle to zero, as long as BlackBerry keeps supporting its customers. But there’s a difference between a product that persists among a relatively small group of diehard loyalists and one that, like the iPhone, is deeply embedded in consumer culture. Even if BlackBerry technically exists for some time, it’s unlikely to ever again capture us the way it did in its early years. And if, at some future point, the company is dismantled and sold for parts—patents, the BlackBerry Messenger service, security technology, etc.—could the BlackBerry disappear for good?"

Is the BlackBerry Dead? : The New Yorker