RIM had posted then taken down a knowledge base article detailing that as of March 1, they would be discontinuing support for the Flickr BlackBerry app, which has been around since 2008. Not only does that mean folks won’t be able to download the app, it means anyone who is currently using it to upload pictures taken on their BlackBerry’s camera won’t be able to anymore. The app also let you tag for subject matter, and include geotags so you could see where the shots were taken. You can see the KB page Google cached here, but the official Flickr for BlackBerry landing page confirms it’ll be cut off by March 1.
It’s kind of ridiculous that RIM is canning the app for a major photo sharing service at a time when decent 5 megapixel cameras are starting to become the norm in BlackBerry handsets. Unless RIM is planning to fold in Flickr sharing with Social Feeds or launch an entirely new app altogether, this seems like a boneheaded move to me, much like how RIM stopped supporting Picasa awhile back. As is, the KB article suggests folks just use the mobile site which, as we know, is no substitute for an app.
On the more optimistic side, OS 6.1 is just around the corner, and we’ve already seen a lot of great new features, like augmented reality support and universal voice search; it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect some deeper integration of media sharing right within the camera app. The lack of OS 6 support for the Flickr app definitely hints that they’ve been working on something for the future, unless of course RIM just got tired of doing all of the development work and are leaving it to Yahoo! to handle it from here on in.
[via BerryReview]