It’s truly the end of an era: the U.S. Senate is officially ditching the once wildly popular Blackberry device.

At one time, Blackberry was so popular that fans had dubbed it “Crackberry,” but the surging popularity of the iPhone and touchscreens abruptly ended the reign of the device.

One might be surprised that people working at the Capitol were actually still using the Blackberry, but that will be over now. An email sent out to Senate staffers this past week said the Senate has about 600 Blackberry phones left, and once those are gone, that’s it: no more will be issued. Future device procurements will come from warranty exchanges only after that.

The Blackberry had been popular with staffers a while back because of its keyboard, which enabled quick communication remotely, but as the popularity of smartphones like the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy have surged and now dominate the market, people often found the Blackberry’s presence to be an annoyance.

Blackberry had attempted to resurrect itself in recent years by launching its own smartphone, but the company’s market share remains less than 1 percent, selling only 500,000 units in its latest quarter compared to 51.2 million iPhones for Apple.

The text of the email sent to staffers is below:

From: Notice (SAA)
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2016 3:56 PM
Subject: BlackBerry Discontinuation

This message was sent to Administrative Managers, Chief Clerks, and System Administrators.

BlackBerry Discontinuation

BlackBerry informed Verizon and AT&T that production of all BlackBerry OS 10 devices (Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport, and Classic) has been discontinued. Future carrier order fulfillment will not be guaranteed due to limited remaining stock.

BlackBerry device support will continue for the foreseeable future. BlackBerry is committed to maintaining their support of our devices to include uninterrupted warranty and technical support.

Once we have exhausted our current in-house stock, new device procurements will be limited, while supplies last, to warranty exchanges only.

As of June 29, 2016, our BlackBerry device stock levels are:

RIM Classic Verizon BlackBerry – 275

RIM Z30 Verizon Black BlackBerry – 160

RIM Classic AT&T BlackBerry – 45

RIM Passport AT&T BlackBerry – 45

RIM Z10 AT&T Black BlackBerry – 45

RIM Q10 AT&T Black Blackberry – 40

For offices wishing to make the transition from BlackBerry devices to other platforms, Verizon has agreed to suspend eligibility upgrade requirements for users migrating to Samsung S6 Android devices. Additionally, the $0 16GB iPhone SE has been added to the Technology Catalog, although current eligibility upgrade and mandatory AppleCare+ requirements apply.

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