Lack of demand to blame as Astraware drops BlackBerry, Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian
Ailing OSes put out to pasture
Howard has asked us to point out that Astraware is still supporting webOS, but has dropped support for Palm OS. Indeed, it expects to be releasing Mahjong for the TouchPad tablet soon.
It's been quite a while since Astraware CEO and founder Howard Tomlinson spoke to us of his cautious optimism for webOS after HP swooped for platform holder Palm.
Indeed, times have certainly changed. With HP currently indulged in a session of will-it-won't-it-sell rumours, Astraware has announced it is to drop support for the format, along with Windows Mobile, Symbian S60 and – most interestingly – BlackBerry.
Old YellerAstraware's move against RIM comes after the firm has had to contend with choppy waters for the majority of 2011, with even a senior executive from within the firm calling the company out for failing to rouse developer support.
"For BlackBerry and Symbian S60, while we kept up for some time with new devices and OS versions, we found that there wasn't enough demand for our titles on these platforms to keep up the pace of development for each new device and OS version," the studio said in a statement.
"As our games began to support only a minority of devices available, we took the decision again that it's better to retire the products and focus on making the best games we can for platforms which are popular now, and we believe have the brightest future."
[source: Astraware]