Guest PaulOBrien Posted May 14, 2013 Report Share Posted May 14, 2013 BlackBerry Messenger, AKA BBM, once the service that brought users to the platform in droves... is coming to Android and iOS this summer after many years or rumours to that effect. The release, which will be a free download and 'fully featured', will support iOS devices running iOS 6 upwards and Android devices with Ice Cream Sandwich or above. There's no mention of Windows Phone support (burrrrrrrn....) as yet. The messaging landscape has changed massively of late and if rumours of Google's babel / hangout service are true (we'll find out soon enough), then BlackBerry really could have a fight on their hands. What do you think? A great move or are BBM's glory days behind it? [Via: The Verge] Click here to view the item Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 3shirts Posted May 14, 2013 Report Share Posted May 14, 2013 This seems a strange move. It seems a big driver, especially for the teen market, towards Blackberry devices. I can understand them wanting iOS on board as iPhones are an expensive device and less likely to compete in that space but with Android spanning everything from high end to budget, this could wind up losing them the teen market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest iWantMore Posted May 14, 2013 Report Share Posted May 14, 2013 I can only think they intend to monetize it in some way, maybe a la Skype. I can see Blackberry moving away from the hardware business and ultimately becoming a software business. They announced today that BBM is the highest used messaging platform, with iOs and Android users it would take it to a whole new level! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lollylost100 Posted May 14, 2013 Report Share Posted May 14, 2013 Too late, it won't be adapated by users. I've been using Whatsapp for a few years now and won't be using BBM unless it offers something better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest domenico lamberti Posted May 14, 2013 Report Share Posted May 14, 2013 slight typo "There's mention of window Phone" is there meant to be a "no" somewhere in there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest englishpunk Posted May 14, 2013 Report Share Posted May 14, 2013 FAR too late ! If they'd have launched something when the first rumours started about this then it might have made sense (captialise on market share), but now they're just another competitor to LINE, Kik, WhatsApp, LiveProfile, etc., the world has moved on, i don't think I know a single active BBM user that doesn't also have something else installed that's cross platform as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zarch1972 Posted May 14, 2013 Report Share Posted May 14, 2013 If anything, adding another client to the list of choices is going to make things worse imho. And if Google bring something to the table tomorrow at IO? Google, BBM, iMessage, Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, Line, Kakao etc etc etc. All with clients running on all or some of Android, iOS, BB, Windows Phone, PC, Mac, Browser etc Am I being naive here, but wouldn't it be amazing if someone came up with an instant messaging "standard" to allow some interoperability between IM clients? Its getting to the point where SMS and Email are the only two safe methods to be sure of contacting someone as I have no idea what their chosen IM app is and I don't want to end up with 5 or 6 clients running on my phone/machine just in case a certain person wants to contact me. Naive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest psionandy Posted May 15, 2013 Report Share Posted May 15, 2013 I'm a bit confused about why this is good news for Blackberry... On their own platform, BBM is a good thing. People buy Blackberrys because they like BBM, and hence BBM makes them money. However if this is free on other devices, it doesn't make them any money at all... it just costs them money to run the service and they don't get anything back. And they'll lose customers and Blackberry users will be able to get other devices and keep BBM (or am I missing something completely obvious?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest markhuges Posted May 15, 2013 Report Share Posted May 15, 2013 I'm a bit confused about why this is good news for Blackberry... On their own platform, BBM is a good thing. People buy Blackberrys because they like BBM, and hence BBM makes them money. However if this is free on other devices, it doesn't make them any money at all... it just costs them money to run the service and they don't get anything back. And they'll lose customers and Blackberry users will be able to get other devices and keep BBM (or am I missing something completely obvious?) It might be Free for a Year and then charge a small £0.69 fee, maybe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zarch1972 Posted May 15, 2013 Report Share Posted May 15, 2013 Further to my earlier rant, what if Google (or someone) released an API that other IM clients could hook into? So the various clients could talk to each other? Crazy eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zarch1972 Posted May 17, 2013 Report Share Posted May 17, 2013 Dieter Bohn at the Verge must have read my IM rants before writing his article. :) :) :) http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/16/4336004/pick-your-poison-mobile-messaging-will-be-fragmented-expensive-or-locked-in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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