Recently, it has been announced by WhatsApp that it is ending its support for Nokia Symbian S0, Nokia S40 and Blackberry 10 and would focus only on 99.5% of addressable mobile market. Along with these changes, the company would also be dropping its support from Android version 2.2 and 2.1 and Windows Phone 7.1.
WhatsApp stated that while these mobile devices are quite important for our story, they don’t offer the necessary capabilities that are needed for expanding the features of the app in future. The company claims that it has intentions of boosting security features in messaging service and when it started, around 70% of phones were either Nokia or BlackBerry with Windows Phone, iOS and Android representing 99.5% of the market.
In the 7 day period that ends on the 1st of February, Google stated that around 0.1% of users were running Froyo 2.2. Last month, the annual subscription of WhatsApp of $1 was dropped by it and it stated that the subscription model didn’t work well because several users didn’t have a credit or debit card. Further, the company stated that it wouldn’t be introducing ads for making up for revenue shortfall.
Recently, WhatsApp is engaged in running battles with telecom regulators all across the globe. 2 largest telecos of South Africa Vodacom and MTN wish to see the top services regulated. On the other hand, Brazil telecos are miffed with voice call functionality being offered by Whatsapp and have sought to have declared WhatsApp as illegal.
While this news has disappointed several regions, particularly the developing markets, where the older operating systems of Nokia would enjoy market share, it is definitely sensible for the company for focusing the efforts on platforms on which maximum users are. Since then, WhatsApp has evolved as a great deal as a simple mobile-messaging ap.
