In an announcement last week, Blackberry acknowledged that Facebook will be discontinuing their app support for all Blackberry devices. Following the footsteps of WhatsApp, which recently announced that their support will be done by the end of the year, this amounts to another major blow against Blackberry that may see even their most ardent supporters and holdovers reconsider their future with the platform.
In their press release (ironically entitled “Great Apps on Blackberry! A Strong Commitment to BlackBerry Users and Developers”), Lou Gazzola, BlackBerry’s Senior Marketing Manager, stated:
“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 (but let them know how you feel on social media, using the hashtag #ILoveBB10Apps). Despite this, we have worked hard to ensure our end users have the best experience in light of this decision, and are continuing to search for alternate solutions.”
Once making up about 20% of the smartphone market in the mid-to-late 2000’s, Blackberry sales have fallen dramatically against stiff competition by the likes of iPhone and Android. Today, they make up less than 0.2% according to Statista. Although the brand continues to try and innovate, such as their latest BB10 Leap, significant losses such as Facebook’s pull continue to signal the final death nail of the product line.
Despite the ill-fated news, Gazzola writes, “Our commitment to BlackBerry 10 and to developers has not changed – we know our developer community continues to be one of the strongest proponents of BlackBerry 10 and they are creating thousands of apps every month,” adding that they “look forward to new apps and new customers on BlackBerry 10 and thank our developer community for their continued strong support!”
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