PayPal to discontinue mobile apps on BlackBerry, Amazon Fire, and Windows Phone devices
26 May 2016
PayPal has announced that it would discontinue its mobile applications on BlackBerry, Amazon Fire, and Windows Phone devices.
As of 30 June, PayPal customers with one of the three devices would need to rely on the phone's internet browser to use PayPal, with BlackBerry users still able to use the BBM app to send payments.
In a statement made on Thursday, PayPal said shuttering the service was in response to the evolving digital payments landscape.
"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," the company said.
"We remain committed to partnering with mobile device providers, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause our customers."
Also by 30 June, Android devices running OS 4.03 or later and Apple devices running iOS 8.1 or higher would need to have the latest PayPal app, version 6.0 installed for using the service on their smart device.
PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman had earlier said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year that Paypal had a tremendous opportunity to transform commerce and financial services, and that mobile was at the centre of that evolution.
PayPal has not given any explanation as to why it was shutting down its non-Android and non-iOS applications. In her announcement post, PayPal VP Joanna Lambert said that everyone could still access the mobile website and that it was still possible to send P2P payments via BBM or to send money from their inbox on Outlook.
