OTHERS described it as the “end of an era.” We thought it was overdue and that the writing on the wall has been clear for some time. Now it’s official — and we can finally say goodbye to an iconic phone brand.

Well, sort of.

BlackBerry announced Wednesday it will stop developing and making its own phones, conceding defeat to the likes of Apple and Samsung in an industry that has long moved past the QWERTY keyboards it built its following on.

In a bygone era — when BlackBerry was known as RIM or Research in Motion, and business leaders and power brokers had BlackBerrys in their suit pockets — the company was valued at $80 billion. It has since shed more than 90 percent of its market capitalization and is worth just $4.3 billion now.

In a statement, BlackBerry chief executive John Chen said: “The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners.”

‘The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners.’

We’re already seeing a bit of BlackBerry’s future play out in the present. Its latest handset, the DTEK50, was outsourced to the same manufacturer that makes Alcatel smartphones, while its 2016 flagship is rumored to be a more specced-out version of the Alcatel Idol 4S.

The BlackBerry DTEK50, the smartphone that’s similar to the Alcatel Idol 4, as seen in this review by Android Authority

And expect more branded devices down the road. BlackBerry has struck a licensing agreement with an Indonesian manufacturer, and it’s hoping to do the same with other companies that have expressed interest in what’s left of its business.

So what exactly will the company lean on moving forward? Software, which BlackBerry views as its next frontier. It has already made strides with its extra-secure, Android-based operating system, and some of its productivity apps on the Play Store are worth the download.

But the road to profitability will be long and hard. BlackBerry reported losses of $372 million in the previous quarter alone. Even if it has decided to compete on a different battlefield and on its own terms, there’s no guarantee it can beat IBM, Microsoft, and VMWare at their own game.

“I think the market has spoken, and I’m just listening,” said Chen, speaking to journalists. “You have to evolve to what your strength is, and our strength is actually in the software and enterprise and security.”

‘The market has spoken … You have to evolve to what your strength is, and our strength is actually in the software and enterprise and security.’

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: It’s no secret that BlackBerry has been hemorrhaging money on its smartphone business. Getting rid of it while still making money off of it through licensing deals seems like the best decision BlackBerry has made in a long time. Now that it’s reinventing itself as a software company, the immediate challenge is getting the rest of the world to accept the change.

MY PARTNER ALORA UY GUERRERO’S TAKE: This move has been long overdue; BlackBerry should have done this a long time ago. IBM successfully pivoted from hardware to software years ago, selling its computer-hardware business to Lenovo. Does BlackBerry have that same business acumen to make an effective transition? Is it wise for the company to still have one foot in the hardware industry? Only time will tell.

IBM successfully pivoted from hardware to software years ago, selling its computer-hardware business to Lenovo. Does BlackBerry have that same business acumen to make an effective transition?

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