Blackberry, one of the most popular phone brands of the era before smartphones took over, has announced that it is ending support for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions from January 4.

The company said that as of January 4, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or WiFi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.

"We thank our many loyal customers and partners over the years," the company said.

These devices will lack the ability to receive over the air provisioning updates and as such, this functionality will no longer be expected to reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.

Applications (BlackBerry Link, BlackBerry Desktop Manager, and BlackBerry Blend) will also have limited functionality.

The company mentioned that BBM Enterprise and BBM Enterprise for Individual Use (BBMe) will continue to be available on other platforms.

It also said that on BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, the service changes will not impact users ability to access their Password Keeper data, as it is stored locally.

"If you are looking to move to another Password Management Application or BlackBerry Password Keeper for Android, you will need to manually create new entries on your new smartphone," the company said.

*Edited from an IANS report