BlackBerry Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins speaks in front of a display of one of the new Blackberry 10 smartphones at the BlackBerry 10 launch event. (Photo : Getty Images/Mario Tama)
Facebook has decided to drop its own app for the BlackBerry 10 OS because of the platform's small market share. The mobile company is "extremely disappointed" with the decision of the social media site.
A Facebook spokesperson said that BlackBerry OS users will soon lose the social media app but they can still access it through a Web browser or through a Web Wrapper app. Users of BlackBerry Android phones can still access the social media through an Android app.
The decision of dropping the app came about three weeks after WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook, announced last February that it will end its support for BlackBerry, Nokia Symbian S60, Nokia S40, Android 2.2 and 2.1 and Windows Phone 7.1 mobile operating systems by the end of 2016, according to eWeek. The user bases for these platforms were getting smaller as time passed by.
When WhatsApp decided to drop its support from BlackBerry 10 OS, it said that the smartphone market had changed so much since it began last 2009. It was bought by Facebook in February 2014 for about $4 billion in cash and $12 billion in stock.
Lou Gazzola, the senior marketing manager for developer relations at BlackBerry, posted on March 17 on BlackBerry's official blog that the mobile company is "extremely disappointed" with the social media's decision. He suggested that BlackBerry users would use the hashtag #ILoveBB10Apss on Twitter to let the social media know their disdain for their decision.
Gazzola ensures the users that they will have the best experience despite the decision and continue to search for other solutions for the issue. Their commitment to BlackBerry 10 OS and to its developers has not changed because they know that their developer community continues to be one of the important proponents of the mobile OS and they continue to create more apps every month, he added.
The mobile company is also continuing to invest in apps that are important to their users like the Twitter app. They are still looking forward to new apps and new customers on BlackBerry 10. Gazzola thanked the developer community for their continued support on the mobile OS.
Watch the BlackBerry Z10 Facebook app review video below:
