WhatsApp announced on Friday that it will be ending its support for the app on Blackberry (NASDAQ: BBRY) devices by the end of 2016 due to their lack of capacity for new features.
The pioneer smartphones will not be the only ones to be cut off as Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 7.1 and even Android 2.1 and 2.2 will be out too.
The messaging company explained that the devices no longer have the capabilities they need to expand the app’s features in the future. They recommend its users that still use the app on those platforms to upgrade to a newer Android, iPhone or Windows Phone before the end of the year.
“This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp,” said the statement published at the company’s blog.
Old times were remembered in their announcement as WhatsApp looked back into their beginnings in 2009. Times when the Apple’s App Store was only a few months old and about 70 percents of the smartphones at the time were provided by Blackberry or Nokia.
Time sure passed quickly, now the market holds operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft as the 99.5 percent of sales today.
Evolve or die?
The company that once held an important share in the smartphone market seven years ago, now holds less than 1 percent, according to Garnter’s latest research.
Blackberry has even embraced Android platform in the recent BlackBerry Priv, a slider phone with physical Qwerty keyboard hidden beneath its screen which offers full support for Android Apps, in an attempt to survive the new times, as reported by Mashable.
Good reviews were given to the phone by Mashable chief correspondent Lance Ulanoff who called the Priv “the best Blackberry in a decade”.
Source: WhatsApp