RIP your old BlackBerry: It's really the end this time

1/4/22 7:00PM

RIP your old BlackBerry

‍Classic BlackBerry phones, once an aspirational product and the very height of mobile technology, are officially joining the growing list of defunct smartphone makers. As of yesterday BlackBerry will no longer run support for any phones running BlackBerry 10, 7.1 OS and earlier.

BlackBerry's fall from grace is quite remarkable, considering its grip on the higher-end of the cellphone market was at its tightest just a decade ago in 2011 — a year when the company brought in more than $20bn in revenue.

Even as the iPhone and other touchscreen models began to drive out the clickity-clack of BlackBerry's tiny keyboards, some power users - including former President Obama - clung dearly to their BlackBerry's, refusing to switch despite their increasing obsolescence.

But even with a few die-hard fans, BlackBerry's life as a smartphone maker looked increasingly tenuous and by 2016 — just a few short years from the heyday of 2011 — revenues at BlackBerry had fallen by ~90%.

‍Greener, smaller, pastures

‍Since then BlackBerry has re-imagined itself. The company's focus has been on building itself into a software company that sells "intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world". Re-inventing itself has been a slow and difficult process that the company is still churning through. In its last two fiscal years revenues have dropped another 30%.

BlackBerry has sold the rights to the name BlackBerry to third parties, one of which promised to release a 5G BlackBerry in 2021, but very little has been heard about it - so don't hold your breath.

Rani Molla12h

OpenAI’s models are officially coming to Amazon

Amazon is finally getting in on the hottest ticket in tech.

After Microsoft announced yesterday that it has agreed to give up its exclusive rights to sell OpenAI’s models, Amazon, as expected, will start offering them to customers — something Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman says users have been asking for “for a really long time.” Some models are available now in preview, and the most powerful GPT versions will show up “in the coming weeks.”

This is a big shift in the AI cloud wars. Microsoft’s early bet on OpenAI gave Azure an edge by locking up the most in-demand models. Now that exclusivity is gone, Amazon and other competitors can finally offer them too, closing a key gap and competing more directly for AI customers.

Amazon Set to Sell OpenAI Tech After Microsoft Cedes Exclusivity

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Ship-tracking app surges as Iran war continues

As Middle East peace talks stretch on, with Tehran reportedly offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the US lifts its blockade and the war ends, the owner of shipping intelligence platform MarineTraffic revealed that the app has gained millions of new users since the conflict began.

MarineTraffic’s user count jumped to 8.5 million this April, up from 3.5 million a year ago, the cofounder of its parent company, Kpler, said in an interview with the Financial Times. Paid subscribers, often workers within companies and governments looking for more data on supply chains and commodities trading, rose 11,000 in the same period.

Kpler, which also owns shipping intelligence platform FleetMon, draws its data from a range of sources, including the Automatic Identification System, satellites, and more than 500 people on-site, like port terminal operators.

Per Appfigures data, MarineTraffic is estimated to have raked in almost $1 million across March and April in app revenue (through April 27), more than double the ~$346,500 from the same months last year. Across the full year, Kpler expects to earn between $300 million and $400 million in annual recurring revenues.

Rani Molla

pedal to the meta

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Meta could be getting ready to post its highest revenue growth since 2021

Meta’s outlook and analyst estimates suggest more than 30% revenue growth in Q1.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg visits U.S. Capitol for Senate meetings

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Google will supply AI models to Pentagon in classified deal, per The Information

Google has become the latest tech company to ink an agreement to supply the Department of Defense (War) with AI, having reportedly closed a classified deal that allows the Pentagon to use its AI for “any lawful government purpose,” according to The Information.

The Information initially reported talks between the Alphabet-owned company and the US government around two weeks ago, following the messy breakdown of the relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration — and the rushed OpenAI deal that took its place.

The move has reportedly sparked opposition among Google employees, with The Washington Post reporting that over 600 workers signed a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai to ask him to bar the Defense Department from using the company’s AI models for any classified work.