Tech roundup: January 2022

Blackberry OS retires

BlackBerry on 4 January officially stopped its service, in accordance with its statement last December saying that it would decommission the phone’s legacy software. Newer BlackBerry devices, which run on Android software, will continue to work normally, according to the statement.

"As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality," the company stated while thanking its “many loyal customers and partners over the years.” 

At its peak in 2009, BlackBerry owned 50% of the United States and 20% of the global smartphone market. However, it started to decline in the 2010s when touchscreen phones were developed.

Meta to build world’s fastest AI supercomputer to shape the metaverse

The company behind Facebook Meta just announced a plan to build the world's fastest AI supercomputer that is designed specifically to train machine learning systems, including content moderation algorithms used to detect hate speech on Facebook and Instagram augmented reality features that will one day be available in the company’s future AR hardware. It will also be used to design experiences for the metaverse

 “We’re calling it RSC for AI Research SuperCluster and it’ll be complete later this year,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. 

Apple retakes top spot in global smartphone market

According to a report by global technology market analyst firm Canalys, Apple has retaked the top spot in the global smartphone market in Q4/2021. Apple managed to account for 22% of worldwide smartphone shipments in the period. The strong demand for the new iPhone 13 is seen as one of the reasons behind the achievement. 

Samsung only managed to take the second place, with a market share of 20%. Xiaomi maintained its third-place position with a 12% share. OPPO and Vivo rounded up the top five with 9% and 8% shares, respectively.