Bad news for Gmail loving BlackBerry users – the search giant has announced that it’s dropping support for its native Gmail app for the device and has stated that it won’t be available for download once Nov. 22 rolls around. While BlackBerry toting users of the app may get upset over the news, don’t fret – you’ll still be able to access your Gmail account through the web client with Google stating that “over this past year, we’ve focused efforts on building a great Gmail experience in the mobile browser and will continue investing in this area.”
If you’re still adamant about accessing your mail through the Gmail app, there’s still time for you to download the app. Even when Google drops support for it you’ll still be able to use it, albeit if you run into any kind of problem, you’re pretty much on your own.
UPDATE: RIM’s local PR arm has contacted us about this story and has given us an official statement about the matter:
“RIM is known for providing an industry leading mobile communications experience. Since 2009, RIM has incorporated native support for Gmail in BlackBerry OS 5.0 and above, which means that a separate Gmail app is not required. The large majority of users who access Gmail on their BlackBerry smartphone already rely on the native support (provided through BlackBerry Internet Service) rather than the separate Gmail app. RIM’s native support for Gmail includes support for multiple Gmail accounts, calendar and contact syncing, and Gmail specific functions such as archive, star, label, conversation view and remote search. RIM will of course continue to work on enhancing this experience further over time. In addition to utilizing this native support, BlackBerry users can also access Gmail through our industry leading webkit browser with full support for HTML5”.
Via: All Things D
Source: Google