Sign of The Times as 'paper drops support for BlackBerry 10 app

The Times newspaper has confirmed it is will no longer offer a mobile app for BlackBerry smartphones, citing a total lack of interest from readers.

As of October 31, the paper's mobile edition will be removed from the BlackBerry App World store, the company told subscribers in an email on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for News Corp pointed out that although the iOS and Android apps were seeing plenty of love, use on BlackBerry smartphones was negligible.

"While The Times' app on iPhone, iPad and android continues to be very successful, very few people use the app on their Blackberry," the spokesperson told Reuters.

The end is near

The Times was the first paper in the UK to disappear behind a paywall, as it sought to recover revenue from those digital readers who flocked to read the news online on their computers or mobile devices.

Since then, most of the other tabloids and broadsheets have followed suit with subscription-based mobile editions.

The BlackBerry snub is another telling blow for the company as it faces up to the reality of disappearing completely from the smartphone landscape.

Last week, the Waterloo, Ontario-based giant agreed in principal a sale to a consortium led by the Fairfax Financial private equity group.

The end is almost certainly nigh for BlackBerry as we know it.