Yahoo Finance Kills Blackberry App in a True Sign of the Smartphone Times

[Shlooky]

Minyanville

On Friday afternoon, Internet giant Yahoo (YHOO) announced that it was decommissioning 10 of its mobile apps, saying on a company blog that "Our plan is to keep moving, to keep innovating, and to continuously measure and scrutinize what's working and what isn't – so we can make room for great new products."

Here's the list of apps that are headed to the scrap heap:

Yahoo! Meme (iPad and iPhone)
Yahoo! Mim (iPad)
Yahoo! Answers (Android)
Yahoo! AppSpot (Android and iPhone)
Yahoo! Deals (iPhone)
Yahoo! Finance (BlackBerry)
Yahoo! Movies (Android)
Yahoo! News (Android)
Yahoo! Shopping (iPhone)
Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search (iPad and iPhone)
Now I can understand Yahoo pulling back to reassess its app strategy on the ultra-competitive Apple (AAPL) iOS and Google (GOOG) Android platforms.

However, I was truly surprised to see the company pull the Yahoo Finance app for Research In Motion's (RIMM) Blackberry.

I remember a day when Blackberry was standard-issue equipment for all the soldiers in corporate America, a crowd that, as you can imagine, would be very likely to demand financial news and data on the go.

Yahoo Finance is one of just a handful of Web properties that have stood the test of time. Think about it. Very few of the content sites that dominated in the late 1990s still have kingpin status today, and Yahoo Finance is one of them. Its position at the absolute top of the finance vertical hasn't ever been even remotely threatened by competitors, including Google.

The fact that the dominant Web finance property is pulling away from the business-centric Blackberry platform is truly a sign of the times. Given that, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised by Yahoo's move.

In the third quarter of 2011, Gartner pegged Blackberry's global market share at 11%, down from 15.4% the year before. We haven't yet seen Q4 numbers from Gartner, but it is a mathematical certainty that there's more shrinkage on the way, given the iPhone 4S' blockbuster sales numbers, and Samsung-led growth on the Android side. (See: Samsung and Apple Now Account for 86% of Smartphone Industry Growth.)

Now from an anecdotal perspective, I've been awfully surprised at the increasing number of 'suits' I see around New York City sporting iPhones and iPads. And when I say suits, I don't mean young, dashing folks in fashion or media -- I'm talking about Fortune 500 types in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. Again, a crowd that would seem to want financial news and data on the go.

And Yahoo just decided that crowd isn't big enough to support.

At least in these parts, traditionally, Apple products mostly appealed to a younger, hipper crowd, as well as creatives. But it's clear, at least to me, that the iOS platform is exploding across multiple demographics.

Heck, from what I've seen on airplanes, toddlers absolutely LOVE iPads.

Never seen one with a Blackberry or Playbook, though....

Twitter: @MichaelComeau

[undone]

Really shouldnt be a surprise. Apps actually should start falling off from support with the old BBOS. It will get worse as the transition to the QNX based OS takes off. Either companies will build apps or they wont. Only the future will tell fate and effect BB10 devices will have.

[lnichols]

I remember a day when Blackberry was standard-issue equipment for all the soldiers in corporate America, a crowd that, as you can imagine, would be very likely to demand financial news and data on the go.

I remember a day when Yahoo was a much more relevant company. Anyway look at all the apps for Android and iPhone getting scrapped and they focused on the only one that is being discontinued for Blackberry when there are 9 other apps being discontinued on Android and/or iOS?!? More crap journalism showing how someone can spin something into anti-RIM. If you use same crap logic this guy uses you could say "I remember a day when people watched movies on Android, but obviously things have changed because Yahoo is discontinuing the Yahoo Movies apps so people aren't watching movies on Android!".

[robsteve]

The web browsers on the phones have gotten better, so no need of a specialized app.

[Houshinto]

I question the articles claim that Yahoo Finance still holds Kingpin status. Maybe this is more so an advertisement for the App. Hope the author has a cheque coming from Yahoo, cause if I was a news editor I wouldn't even pay for the paper this article is written on.

Considering there are, and will be in the future, better apps that do what Yahoo Finance does, this is not really a knock against Blackberry to me.

It's more like Yahoo knowing that they need to scale back resources from areas that are in decline or have been already overshadowed.

Anyways I take this with a grain of salt. But thanks for fear mongering.

[Rickroller]

All's I get from this article is Yahoo is "streamlining" things..as they should. Yahoo anything is junk imo..

[always3rd]

Was there a top secret, under the table memo that went out to media outlets across the globe that outlines some sort of profit sharing for said media moguls if they are successful in whoring apple and samsung product name to where every simple minded person believes beyond any shadow of doubt that it is the "cool" thing to have and owning one will somehow raise their social status??????

[mithrazor]

Blue is a much better app anyway.

Free Blue - Download Blue - Free Apps from BlackBerry App World

[sleepngbear]

Minyanville is several rungs below BGR on my interwebz crap-o-meter. Look up 'insignificant' in Webster's and there's .

[livejam]

Yahoo and Minyanville are NOT leading indicators of anything.

[Economist101]

Originally Posted by always3rd

Was there a top secret, under the table memo that went out to media outlets across the globe that outlines some sort of profit sharing for said media moguls if they are successful in whoring apple and samsung product name to where every simple minded person believes beyond any shadow of doubt that it is the "cool" thing to have and owning one will somehow raise their social status??????

Ah, see I hadn't read Samsung before as a co-conspirator. . . Any evidence other than their sales numbers?

[NJPhilliesPhan]

I am sick of Blackberry being the oddball OS. Everything is available for Apple and Android. It seems that BB is falling further down the ladder.Losing Yahoo finance is a major blow.

[Blacklac]

Yahoo! Finance - Business Finance, Stock Market, Quotes, News

[dentynefire]

Originally Posted by Houshinto

I question the articles claim that Yahoo Finance still holds Kingpin status. Maybe this is more so an advertisement for the App. Hope the author has a cheque coming from Yahoo, cause if I was a news editor I wouldn't even pay for the paper this article is written on.

Considering there are, and will be in the future, better apps that do what Yahoo Finance does, this is not really a knock against Blackberry to me.

It's more like Yahoo knowing that they need to scale back resources from areas that are in decline or have been already overshadowed.

Anyways I take this with a grain of salt. But thanks for fear mongering.

funny thing is a lot of apps get their data from yahoo finance anyways. yahoo has also dropped their support for online chat/messenger. they are a company with no future if you ask me.

[mithrazor]

Originally Posted by NJPhilliesPhan

I am sick of Blackberry being the oddball OS. Everything is available for Apple and Android. It seems that BB is falling further down the ladder.Losing Yahoo finance is a major blow.

Lol I swear I can always count on you to over dramatize in any thread.