Friday, July 26, 2013



Earlier in the year, Research in Motion (RIM) Company Blackberry announced that its popular messenger application, BBM, is coming to iPhones and Android powered mobile phones. It seems the wait may soon be over as it could be available by late September.


The sales of Blackberry smartphones has dipped over the years with the introduction of Apple iPhones and Android powered smartphones. Without an iota of doubt, the Blackberry messenger is the most popular application on the Blackberry smartphones as it is only available on Blackberry phones.
Blackberry BBM to be released to Android and iOS in September


Sources from the Canadian company has indicated that the app will be released to Google Play Store and Apple app store  by late September although no specific date was indicated. Managing director of Blackberry India, Sunil Lalvani admitted recently that it will be available in a couple of months.

“The service is coming to Android this summer. But summer as per North America, where it remains till September,” he said.

There are now many messengers around on mobile and Blackberry can expect a fierce competition when it finally comes to Android and iOS. Whatsapp which boasts of 250 million active users is one of the major players in the messaging market.

Other applications include LINE which claims it already has 200 million downloads, China’s WeChat has also topped 300 million downloads while KakaoTalk has about 100 million downloads. Even these chat services are very active in countries like Indonesia where 18% of Blackberry global users reside.

One interesting fact that will surprise most Nigerians is that despite Blackberry’s popularity in Nigeria, only 3% of Blackberry’s global users reside in Nigeria. The fact is that this move will make the Blackberry messenger more popular in Nigeria and globally but one thing remains unclear, will it increase Blackberry smartphone sales.

I doubt if the release of BBM to other platforms will increase Blackberry smartphones faltering sales. Most people buy Blackberry because of the chat app which is unique to Blackberry only. “What is your pin?” (lol) they say proudly. But there’s only one entity that will tell us if Blackberry’s fortune will change for good with this move: time.

(Stats: BGR)

2 comments:

  1. Most people in the Nigeria only go for blackberry because of its messenger BBM. Aside that, the phone has a very irresponsive interface, it is low and some worth consumes a lot of battery power. If they are going to make the messenger available to iOS and Android, I don't think anyone is going to be buying blackberries any more

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah my thoughts too especially in Nigeria. Without bbm, android & iOS beats blackberry in other aspects..

      Delete

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