Google has revealed that as of the 22nd of November it will be ending support for the Gmail App for Blackberry.

Users who already have this app installed on their BlackBerry mobile devices will still be able to utilise it after 22 November, but Google will not update or support it after that date. The app will also not be available for download from 22 November, but the company said that new BlackBerry users can continue to access Gmail on their devices via the BlackBerry browser by going to Gmail.com, when the app is no longer available.

 

Some analysts have pointed to Google’s pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which would turn the search giant into a hardware and software maker, as a possible motive for this move.

"Google is sticking it to RIM [BlackBerry holding company Research In Motion] because RIM has become more and more of a competitor, from an ecosystem perspective and, pending the Motorola acquisition, from a device perspective," Roger Entner, founder of market research firm Recon Analytics informed Bloomberg.

The search giant stated that over the course of this year, it has focused its development efforts on creating an excellent Gmail experience within the mobile browser of smartphones and tablets and that it will continue investing in this area.
 

In related news Google also recently kicked off the global roll out of Google+ Pages for companies, brands as well as other organisations, revealed the first four teams of entrepreneurs who have been selected for the Umbono programme and released two more African language versions of YouTube, namely Afrikaans and isiZulu.