In the latest development of the intense rivalry between Research In Motion (RIM) and Google's Android-based smartphones, the latter has indicated it will end support for Blackberry's Gmail App, beginning Nov. 22.

Beginning Nov. 22, 2011, we will end support for the Gmail App for Blackberry (installed native app). Over this past year, we've focused efforts on building a great Gmail experience in the mobile browser and will continue investing in this area, Google said in a blog post. Users may continue to use the app, if installed. However it will not be supported by Google or be available for download.

However, BlackBerry users can continue to access Gmail through the mobile web app at http://www.gmail.com in their BlackBerry web browser.

Google has confirmed that only the download link for the Gmail app for BlackBerry is being removed and they are, instead, focusing on the mobile browser experience. Google Apps for business, government and education customers using Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server will continue to be supported.

Following is the Statement from RIM:

Since 2009, RIM has incorporated native support for Gmail in BlackBerry OS 5.0 and above, which means that a separate Gmail app is not required. The large majority of users who access Gmail on their BlackBerry smartphone already rely on the native support (provided through BlackBerry Internet Service) rather than the separate Gmail app. RIM will of course continue to work on enhancing this experience further over time. In addition to utilizing this native support, BlackBerry users can also access Gmail through our industry leading webkit browser with full support for HTML5.

Recently, Google released a Gmail app to Apple's App Store for iOS devices. However, it quickly pulled the app due to bugs and said it was working on a fix.

The iOS app we launched today contained a bug with notifications. We have pulled the app to fix the problem. Sorry we messed up, Google said in a tweet on Nov. 2.

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