Yahoo To Shut Down Mail And Contacts On Old Apple Devices

Yahoo is also determined to pull down Maps and Pipes feature as well.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has announced that for those who operate their Yahoo Mail on devices, such as iOS 4 or earlier, will no longer have access to those accounts through their iOS’s native Mail app. Simultaneously, the web search engine will also pull the plug on Macs and OS X Lion.

A Yahoo spokesperson has said that the changes are necessary, as they try to streamline the speed, security, and the functionality of Yahoo services. However, those who possess unsupported operating systems can still access their Mail and Contacts on the web via mail.yahoo.com. It is not going to eliminate its maps product though, since Flicker and Search, as well as other properties, still needs it.

These are part of Yahoo’s theme, which has made it clear, as it published its second quarterly progress report for the year 2015. It is time to kill off antiquated features and products that have slowed down the performance of Yahoo!’s apps. These changes will come into effect from June 15.

In addition, by the end of the month, Yahoo will also shutter its Yahoo TV in countries, ranging from France, Germany, Canada, and the UK, along with Yahoo Autos, though it will keep that product in Canada for the time being. By the mid of this month, Yahoo Movies will vanish in Spain, and pull the final curtain for much of Yahoo Philippines, where most of the traffic will be redirected to Singapore home page. Even the smallest country in Southeast Asia will also face the disappearance of its Yahoo entertainment page sometime early next month.

As for ‘Pipes’, which is an app that gives people an easy platform to develop their own apps and also aggregate the web feeds, it will not allow any new creation to be entertained, effective from the end of August, after which, developers will have a month to scoop up any essential data that may be permanently eliminated, once the service comes to an end eventually after a month long deadline.

The shutting down of these websites is the clearest indication of Yahoo struggling to cope up with Google and other web search engines, and is putting pressure on the CEO, Marissa Mayer, to be shown the door, following the departure of several executives in recent months that are putting the company at discourse and flowing through uncharted waters without a lack of strategy.

Yahoo stock price ended the day at $42.88, down 0.77% from the previous day.