Things aren’t looking good for Blackberry, something that would be unthinkable a decade ago. Alas the company has failed in its attempts to adapt to the ever changing smartphone landscape, being left behind in the dust by Samsung, Apple and other various smartphone brands. The depressing truth is that while Android and iOS phones hold 58% and 39% of the smartphone ecosystem respectively in the US, BlackBerry OS (BBOS) sadly falls into the “other” category of smartphones, one that makes up a meagre 0.1% of the marketplace in the US. As a result of these ailing numbers Whatsapp recently announced that they would discontinue support for BBOS and hot on its heels, so has Facebook.
BlackBerry took the blow, stating in a blog post:
“We are extremely disappointed in their decision as we know so many users love these apps. We fought back to work with WhatsApp and Facebook to change their minds, but at this time, their decision stands.”
BlackBerry smartphone users will have to download a mandatory update to the Facebook App by April; the app will then cease to work on BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry 7.1 handsets.
What’s more, Facebook hasn’t merely removed support for the official app, but they also removed the API, ensuring that developers won’t be able to create and develop third-party apps for Facebook. To give an even greater sense of foreboding, before the pull of support and the shutting down of the API, apps for Facebook and WhatsApp made up five of the top 10 free apps on the BlackBerry World app store, three of which are made by BlackBerry or third party developers.
Unfortunately for BlackBerry this move will prompt existing users to migrate to other smartphones to engage in basic messaging and social media platforms although I see it as a way to further encourage BlackBerry to ditch their failing OS and adopt Android as they did with the BlackBerry Priv.
