If there’s one more reason to give up on BlackBerry and Nokia, it’s the discontinuation of WhatsApp from their operating systems starting 2017. Both companies, having being the superpowers of the mobile industry, have for long been run over by Samsung and Apple. Currently, the two has-beens are having a hard time reaching the level of innovation and market control enjoyed by their competitors.
Whatsapp Nixes Support for Bygone Mobile OSes
It has been seven years for WhatsApp and it boasts of one billion active users – which is quite a charm. However, earlier last week, the company announced its decision to discontinue the app on BlackBerry and Nokia, on its official blog, which read:
‘When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 percent of sales today – were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time.’
With these statistics in mind, the company plans to end its services for:
- BlackBerry – including BlackBerry 10
- Nokia S40
- Nokia Symbian S60
- Android 2.1 and 2.2
- Windows Phone 7.1
So it’s not just an axe on Nokia and BlackBerry, but rather on all now obsolete devices and systems that could never quite make it big. This may seem like a blow to users of Nokia and BlackBerry, but hey, it’s not that any one of us are still using these devices. And if you’re still using an antique smartphone, it’s time to upgrade!
I am using Whatsapp in both Nokia E72 and Blackberry Z10. Will Whatsapp work after 2017 or they are just stopping support?
Yes Shahzad, it won’t be working anymore. Time to upgrade to a new device.
Thanks Farah for reply. I will upgrade…