Aaaah, you still use a BlackBerry or a Nokia? Cute, except now that Whatsapp is pulling a plug you’re surely going to kiss those devices goodbye right?
That’s right, Facebook-owned Whatsapp are now dropping support for older phones, which includes each and every BlackBerry model. In addition by the end of this year the messaging service will also drop support for some Nokia and Android devices, with this below taken from Sky:
WhatsApp says that using developer time on these devices could hold back the app’s growth.
In a blog post the company said: “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% of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia.”
These days, BlackBerry has less than 1% market share as Apple and Samsung dominate worldwide phone sales.
Every BlackBerry, including ones running the relatively new BlackBerry 10, will be hit, along with the Nokia S40, Symbian S60 and any phone running Android 2.1 and 2.2, plus Windows Phone 7.1.
So what advice do they have for those using affected models? Simple really, buy a new bloody phone. They then softened the blow and finished that blog post with the following:
“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.”
So brave, and if you’re thinking about making the switch over to Apple then be sure to check out Digicape’s specials on iPhones HERE.
[source:sky]
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