From about 2008 to 2012, a commonly asked question found across online forums of travel communities such as TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet and Fodor’s Travel used to be: Will my BlackBerry work in Costa Rica? These days, that question seems to have vanished altogether along with the popularity of BlackBerry devices; however, faint signs of a resurgence of interest in these once-iconic business smartphones seems to be underway in Costa Rica.

For many years, BlackBerry proudly stood as one of the most important technology firms to come out of Canada. The rising popularity of the iPhone along with a glut of Android-powered devices resulted in a short lifespan for BlackBerry smartphones in Costa Rica. Still, recent moves by the company are making it appealing once again to some Ticos. It all started in December 2014 with the preliminary announcement of the BlackBerry Classic, a smartphone model that packs features that echo the heyday of Canadian smartphone engineering: a full, physical QWERTY keyboard with a trackpad and Chiclets-like keys that are fully responsive, a lighting-fast browser with smart rendering, more screen space, and a battery that lasts as long as the devices of yore.

A couple of months after the BlackBerry Classic announcement, these retro-design smartphones are starting to be seen among users in Costa Rica, and the Facebook community of users has grown by hundreds of new members -although there are less than 2,000 at this time. This may soon change thanks to the BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.1 upgrade and the Blend platform, which is designed to work across multiple operating systems including Mac, Windows®, iOS and Android™.

In addition to the above, the BlackBerry OS upgrade includes the Amazon Appstore, which allows users to install Android apps without having to switch to a different smartphone, and there’s also a functional digital assistant that interacts with voice and text commands, similar to Apple’s Siri.

Even with these new developments, it remains to be seen if BlackBerry can gain further market share in Costa Rica. Even the iPhone is seeing increased competition from Android smartphones in our country, and Microsoft is gradually increasing its presence thanks to the Nokia brand, which has always been well-received in Costa Rica.