WhatsApp ditching BlackBerry

Instant messaging application WhatsApp over the weekend announced plans to discontinue support for several older and fringe smartphone mobile platforms.

In a blog post titled 'WhatsApp support for mobile devices', the instant messaging service said it plans to kill support for its app on the following mobile platforms by the end of 2016: BlackBerry (including BlackBerry 10), Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Android 2.1 and Android 2.2 and Windows Phone 7.1.

WhatsApp said that while these mobile devices have been an "important part of our story, they don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future".

The move comes as Samsung and Apple dominate the global smartphone market which each respectively have a 22.5% and 15.9% share.