As of Monday, The New York Times' Palm Pre and BlackBerry apps have been discontinued and will no longer receive news updates, according to Reuters. The publication's help page says that it made a "decision to consolidate our efforts and concentrate on delivering you the best possible experience through our mobile site..."
New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told Reuters that "it's a matter of usage of our apps, and we dedicate our resources where we think there's the highest level of usage." While The New York Times may have closed the door on BlackBerry 7 OS, Murphey said the company isn't opposed to an app for BlackBerry 10, saying "that decision has not been made, and it's entirely possible that we might." Given the status of WebOS and RIM's diminishing marketshare, this move to focus on the publication's other mobile platforms is logical, but unfortunate for customers on either platform. The New York Times does try to make modest amends by providing instructions on how to create homescreen shortcuts to its mobile webpage, but we have a feeling that Palm Pre and BlackBerry owners may still feel a pang of abandonment.