Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., the maker of
Android software for mobile phones, will stop supporting the Gmail
application for rival BlackBerry smartphones made by Research In Motion
Ltd.
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.'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.