PayPal has announced it is dropping support for the PayPal app on the Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Amazon Fire platforms. The company will concentrate on its app on the iOS and Android platforms from now on.
PayPal says it will “sunset” the Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Amazon Fire versions of its app on June 30. After that date, users of any of those platforms will still be able to access the payments firm on their devices via the PayPal website on their device’s browser. The company said the move will help it put all its focus on “creating the very best experiences for our customers.”
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. We remain committed to partnering with mobile device providers, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our customers.
Blackberry users can also continue to use the BBM app to send peer-to-peer payments via PayPal, and Outlook.com users can also use the PayPal add-in to send money directly from their inbox on their Windows Phone.
The Windows Phone platform has never proven popular, with a below 1% share of the smartphone market. Microsoft confirmed earlier this week that it is scaling back its smartphone business, and will now concentrate on enterprise customers. BlackBerry, once a market leader, has also seen its marketshare drop to a tiny 0.2% of the market as of Q1 2016.
Also of note in the announcement, starting on June 3 through June 30, customers using older versions of the PayPal mobile app on Android and iOS will be required to upgrade to version 6.0, the newest version of the PayPal app.
