UPDATED 23:52 EDT / JULY 14 2016

NEWS

Salesforce1 update to drop support for most mobile devices

Salesforce.com Inc., is causing some upset over its decision to drastically reduce the number of devices supported by its Salesforce1 mobile app. The decision will effectively leave anyone using an older or less popular smartphone or tablet out in the cold.

The winter 2017 release of Salesforce1, set to land in October, will see Salesforce drop support for all Android phones, barring Samsung’s Galaxy S5, S6 and S7, the Galaxy Note 4, the Google Nexus 5X and the Nexus 6P, The Register has learned. There’s hardly any room for Android tablets either, with the only exceptions being Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 and Samsung Tab A 9.7.

iOS users fare little better, with support being dropped for the iPhone 5 and 5C, as well as the iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini3, and the iPad 4.

Salesforce1 is the mobile version of Salesforce’s popular CRM platform, and provides mobile tools to help workers manage sales leads, collaboration and reporting while on the go. When the update arrives, users of unsupported devices will still be able to use Salesforce1 as normal, which means they’ll have additional time to upgrade to supported devices. However, Salesforce will no longer offer any bug fixes, technical support or enhancements.

The announcement means that Salesforce is sharpening its focus onto just the latest and most popular devices, but it hasn’t gone down too well with Salesforce users, who have taken to Twitter to voice their discontent.

Customers will always be annoyed by such decisions, but in this case experts say Salesforce’s reasons are quite legitimate. Frank Scavo, president to Computer Economics, told Computerworld that the situation was similar to that of developers having to cope with multiple browsers and multiple versions of those browsers. He noted that it becomes very expensive trying to support multiple devices, and that it’s also quite normal for developers to drop support for older browsers. Therefore, Salesforce users should not be surprised to see the same.

The company “greatly simplifies its development burden,” Scavo told Computerworld. “Ultimately it’s a business decision.”

Image credit: Salesforce

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