BlackBerry Gmail App to be Discontinued

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BlackBerry is dying a slow death, at least if you consider how developers are slowly abandoning platform-specific development to focus on bigger ecosystems and technologies. Google, for one, is pulling the plug on Gmail for BlackBerry by end of November, and is pushing the HTML5-powered mobile Gmail instead.

By November 22, Google will cease to support the BlackBerry-native Gmail application for BlackBerry smartphones. In lieu of this app, users are advised to access the mobile HTML5-powered Gmail web interface through the BlackBerry browser.

Beginning November 22, 2011, we will end support for the Gmail App for Blackberry (installed native app). 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.

BlackBerry and Gmail users can still run the application, although Google will not provide technical support. Also, the app will no longer be available from BlackBerry App World starting November 22. Existing users can still access Gmail through their Gmail app if it’s already installed.

Google has relaunched the mobile edition of Gmail earlier this month with additional HTML5 features, including dynamic resizing to fit the device screen, custom widget placement, and the like. BlackBerry creator RIM, itself, has been encouraging developers to build more HTML5 apps, which are cross-platform applications, but which can take better advantage of device capabilities.

BlackBerry users can access the HTML5 variant of mobile Gmail through www.gmail.com.

BlackBerry users can still push Gmail to their native BlackBerry email client, although this will not provide the full-fledged Gmail experience that Google’s native app for the BlackBerry can give. We suppose enterprising users and hackers can still find a way to install Gmail on their BlackBerry devices, although the prospect of getting official updates to the app is nil at this point.