By Hugo Miller - Nov 10, 2011 5:50 AM GMT+0700
Google Inc. (GOOG), the maker of Android software for mobile phones, will stop supporting the Gmail application for rival BlackBerry smartphones made by Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)
The app for Google’s Web-based e-mail will no longer be available as of Nov. 22 and won’t be supported after that, the Mountain View, California-based company said in a blog posting. Users may continue to use the app if already downloaded, Google said.
RIM is struggling to find ways to stop a decline in smartphone market share as customers increasingly opt for Android devices or Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone. The Gmail announcement comes one week after Google debuted a similar app for Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices, before pulling it after users began receiving error messages.
RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, closed down 4.1 percent to $18.05 in New York, its lowest level since Aug. 13, 2004. The stock has dropped 69 percent this year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index shed 3.7 percent to 1,229.1, its worst decline in almost three months.
Google’s move is an inconvenience for BlackBerry users with a Gmail account who want to access those messages on the go and also a signal to RIM more than anything else, said analyst Roger Entner.
‘Symbolic Gesture’
“It’s a more symbolic gesture, as if you want it to work you can make it work but the app makes it easier,” said Entner, founder of market research firm Recon Analytics LLC in Dedham, Massachusetts.
BlackBerry users that want to access their Gmail accounts will still be able to do so on their phone’s Web browser, or by synchronizing their Google account with BlackBerry service.
Google said it is stopping development of its app for BlackBerrys to focus on the mobile browser experience, without elaborating further.
RIM said in an e-mailed statement that the BlackBerry operating system supports “native” Gmail so a dedicated app is not needed to access its messages. Native describes the ability to synch e-mail to your BlackBerry. The large majority of BlackBerry Gmail users already rely on that native support, the company said.
RIM’s share of the global smartphone market fell 5 percentage points to 10 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to research firm IDC. Its market share in the U.S. alone dropped to 9 percent from 24 percent, according to another researcher Canalys.
Google, Motorola
While RIM is struggling to shift its entire range of devices onto a new operating system and revive interest in its PlayBook tablet, its base of more than 70 million subscribers remains a threat to competitors. Google is seeking approval for its $12.5 billion purchase of handset maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., which would turn it into a hardware maker as well as software and search engine company.
“Google is sticking it to RIM because RIM has become more and more of a competitor, from an ecosystem perspective and, pending the Motorola acquisition, from a device perspective,” said Entner.
Google closed down 1.9 percent to $600.95.
RIM said in a separate statement that the company is investigating reports that some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have experienced delays. There is no system-wide outage, the company said.
The BlackBerry network suffered a three-day outage last month after problems that began in Europe spread to North and South America, disrupting access for millions of BlackBerry users. RIM said the delays were caused by the failure of a backup switch when a core switch failed, resulting in a large backlog of data that spread across the network.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hugo Miller in Toronto at hugomiller@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net
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