Langalakhe Mabena
ON November 1, over 20 types of smartphones will not be able to support the WhatsApp application as their systems will be outdated.
According to information provided on WhatsApp FAQ, the Facebook-owned texting platform will stop supporting phones that have systems running on Android 4.0.3, iOS 9 and KaiOS 2.5.0.
From the old phones, a majority of Android gadgets are bound to be affected including Samsung, Huawei, Sony, Alcatel, LG and many more others.
Apple Inc owned iPhones are also not spared from the effect as models from iPhone 6 going backwards will also stop supporting WhatsApp.
At least, a majority of locally used smartphones such as Itel, G-Tel and Techno phones are spared and it’s a relief to many as they have survived the chop.
The sad news has brought about inconvenience to WhatsApp users especially business people and students who sometimes attend lessons online.
“I am using a Huawei Ascend Mate and I am told it will stop supporting WhatsApp soon. This is the same phone that I was using for my online lessons during the lockdown and to date.
“Things are hard at home. I recently registered for my O-levels and I doubt if my parents will afford to buy me a new phone,” said Thabani Ncube, a pupil from Luveve High School.
A survey conducted by B-Metro on cellphone shops around Bulawayo, established that most of the young entrepreneurs on the gadgets market had done away with selling old phones.
Samsung Bulawayo shop started supplying and selling advanced smart phones last year.
Anna Mnkandla, who is the human resources and sales manager at the Samsung Bulawayo shop, said they were looking forward to a boom in their sales since many gadget owners would be affected.
“We stopped supplying phones that support the Android version 4 last year. Currently, we sell gadgets that support Android 9 going upwards. These are mostly latest phones manufactured since 2019.
“We can’t run away from the fact that we are now living in the digital age and a phone is vital for communication either for work or with our loved ones.
“We are looking forward to seeing our business booming as of next month because a phone is a need and the world is now a village because of gadgets,” said Mnkandla.
KH Compucell which is a shop located at Bulawayo Centre has never supplied affected phones to their clients.
“We source these phones from Dubai. We started operating last year and we have only latest phones in our shop.
The old iPhone gadget we have on our shelves is an iPhone8.
“Our shop is open to everyone, we even accept instalments, so people are free to come and get gadgets that will connect them to the world,” said Sinikiwe Mahlambi, who is a sales representative at KH Compucell.
Before clients panic Mahlambi said they must first check the operating system on their phones before buying new ones.
“There are phones that have to be upgraded their Operating System (OS) only so that they can support WhatsApp, like iPhone 6 and 7.
“To check which OS an iPhone is running on, users can head over to the Settings menu, then to the general and information option, and then software. That is where they will be able to tell which OS their iPhone is using.
“Android users can head to settings, then About Phone to see which Android version their smartphone is running on,” said Mahlambi.
