PayPal has just driven another nail
into the coffin of BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Amazon mobile
operating systems by announcing it is dropping support for all three
platforms with the latest update to its mobile application. In a May
25 blog post announcing the upgrade to Version 6.0 of the PayPal app,
Joanna Lambert, the company's vice president of global consumer
product and engineering, noted that Amazon Fire or Blackberry users
will be no longer be able to use the app on June 30, the date it will
be discontinued.
However, she noted customers using those devices would still be
able to log into PayPal on these phones through the company's mobile
Web interface. In addition, Blackberry users will continue be able to
use the BBM app to send peer-to-peer payments through PayPal.
"It was a difficult decision to
no longer support the PayPal app on these mobile platforms, but we
believe it's the right thing to ensure we are investing our resources
in creating the very best experiences for our customers,"
Lambert wrote. "We remain committed to partnering with mobile
device providers, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may
cause our customers."
Starting on June 3, and going through June 30, customers using
older versions of the PayPal mobile app on Google Android and Apple
iOS devices will be required to upgrade to the newest version of the
app.
The newest version of the app is currently supported on Android
devices running OS 4.03 or greater and Apple devices running iOS 8.1
or higher, iPhone 4S or greater, iPad 2 or greater, and iPod Touch
fifth generation or greater.
The latest version, announced in February, was built using an
interative platform to make it easier to customize and localize the
PayPal app for the 145 markets where the app is live. It includes
simplified features to make it easier to send and receive money. In
addition, a revamped home screen provides transaction details, allows
users to pay pending requests, or send payments to recent contacts.
Other features include a fine-tuning Android fingerprint
authentication for more devices, separation of account activity by
pending and completed transactions, and quicker access to the friends
who users send money most often. "As the digital payments
landscape evolves, we will continue to innovate and make enhancements
to PayPal's mobile experiences to give our customers the best
possible ways to manage and move their money," Lambert wrote.
Those sentiments will provide little comfort to the app's users on
BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Amazon devices. BlackBerry in
particular has suffered a series of setbacks, with major app
providers ending support for the platform.
In March, Facebook made the decision, along with the messaging app
the company owns, WhatsApp, to discontinue support of its essential
APIs for BlackBerry 10 and BBOS at the end of 2016, which means
Facebook Messenger will no longer be supported on BlackBerry.
BlackBerry's handset sales figures show the operating system is
already on life support, something that looks unlikely to change
soon. Company CEO John S. Chen has said numerous times that if
BlackBerry can't make a profit selling hardware, it will stop selling
hardware altogether -- something that seems more and more like a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
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