Facebook, WhatsApp farewell BlackBerry The writing probably appeared on the wall when WhatsApp announced its disinterest in BlackBerry APIs: Facebook has followed the lead of its subsidiary, and dumped native support for the ailing smartphone-maker. WhatsApp led the way earlier this month, putting the BlackBerry platforms in the same bucket as Nokia's S40 and …
Blackberry started out when the phone companies were their only customers. That is no longer true yet the Canadians have ignored that part of reality and watched their market share drop and drop. If Blackberry started selling their phones direct at a reasonable price (which is their only hope now) and started letting developers know they are more likely to get paid writing a Blackberry app than a iOS or Android app, things might change but the leadership at Blackberry seem to be clueless.
I like my blackberry Q10. Other than some odd quirks, its a decent platform. I like that it runs Android apps. I like that it lies to Android apps about their access to the system. I like the sandbox they run on is so isolated that even providing a root shell won't allow access to my other stuff. Most of all I like the real keyboard.
"Now, Facebook has followed suit, and that's incensed BlackBerry, since without Facebook there's even less reason to buy its products."
Bovine Fecal Matter! Completely and totally, without a doubt. We recently cut all ties with Facebook and each individual involved gained at least 6 hours with which they were free to do as they liked. Most of them remembered that they had family and close friends. Now they all play ball and have gatherings again like they used to do. They get together and watch movies. They spend time talking with each other.
To coin a phrase from Nancy Regan, "just say NO to Facebook!"
Blackberry would do much better if they didn't worry about trying to keep up with the Joneses who all have their heads shoved up Facebook's nether regions. There are a lot of better ways to spend one's life.
A bit of a non story really, as someone said the new BlackBerry models you would just install the Android app.
One problem the BlackBerry app store always had was the price and quality. It was full of junk for free and that was mixed with apps costing £10. Any Blackberry user that happened to look at their friend's iPhone/Android phone would soon see what they were missing out on.
Sometimes I just wish BlackBerry would listen and look at the market.
>Quite possibly due to the fact I don't see the point in CandyCrushSodaFarmStoryFriendsVajazzle.
That's akin to saying you don't see the point of a record shop because you don't like the high-selling pop music aimed at teenagers. Nor do I. There will still be a Jazz and Classical section towards the back of the store though.
Okay, that analogy is showing my age!
This post has been deleted by its author
> writing and maintaining a decent, bug-free web browser
Perhaps a tad optimistic there - but not helped by crap websites dumping 10 gigs of crappy cpu-melting script that does nigh-on fck-all and that's even before you get the ad 'services' providing their super internet-enhancing 'informatives'.
Sorry, slight digression...
>Quite a clear example of why the concept of downloadable "apps" for phones was stupid from the very beginning.
In the beginning, apps were a solution to:
-sub optimal text input
-low mobile data allowances
-integration with phone hardware that the browser couldn't do.
Things are different now. There are still some good reasons to have apps, and also moves by Google to use an app without installing it.
"they don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future"
To me this suggests WhatsApp is going to start shit advert-slinging soon.
Otherwise what do they need to add? It already does chat and photos/video sending, plus group support to help arrange parties, etc. It is all I want in an IM app and I really don't want any other "features" to track me or serve up shit adverts.
The Facebook app has been fairly useless on BB10 for at least six months as it doesn't support comment replies. Blackberry have done nothing about this. No sympathy - I seriously considered a BB Passport, but went in the end with a modded Android keyboard phone with XPrivacy on it, so once I've got round to configuring it, I can still run the FB app without it sucking all my data off the phone..
In the meantime there's Face10 for (paid) Facebook support on BB, but you're stuffed with Whatsapp..
The FB app on BB was ok, certainly faster on my Z10 than FB app on my iphone 4S which I gave up using a long time ago.
I did notice last week that there was an update waiting for FB on the Z10 and turns out it just replaces the app with a link to the website.
Whatsapp talking about not supporting because it doesn't do the new stuff they want to do.... It already does far more than I want it to do anyway, although whatsappweb was quite a nice surprise and saves me having to use crappy touch screens when I'm sat at home working on the laptop
Once you get past the reality that you don't need the hord of games and that you really need a phone that serves your communications needs, you quickly arrive at BB10.
Wife moving from Android to BB10 this week. Face10 is the only app she needs outside the native BB10 suite. Think about it. Paying $700 for a phone to play candycrush.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
