BBM coming to iOS and Android this summer

[xxMATTGxx]

BlackBerry bringing BBM to Android and iOS this summer

http://mattgarner.net/uploads/bbmandroidios1_2040_large_verge_medium_landscape.j pg



BlackBerry has just announced that its hugely popular BBM messaging service is going multi-platform: it will be released for Android and iOS as a free app this summer. BBM will support iOS hardware running iOS 6 and above; the Android version will be compatible with version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and above. "It's time to bring BBM to a greater audience," CEO Thorsten Heins said in announcing the expansion, "no matter what mobile device they carry."

Though it's long been considered one of BlackBerry's strongest exclusive offerings, Heins said that his company aims to deliver a "fully featured" BBM experience on rival smartphone operating systems. "We're starting with messaging and groups, but we'll bring voice, screen share, and of course, channels later on," he said.

"BlackBerry's killer app won't be an exclusive anymore"

"Why are we doing this now? It's a statement of confidence," Heins went on. He said that BlackBerry 10's prospects are "so strong that we are confident that BBM can become an independent messaging solution." In a press release, BlackBerry notes that BBM's successful move to iOS and Android depends upon the approval of Apple and Google. Assuming things go according to plan, BBM will face no shortage of competition from WhatsApp and other messaging apps that already enjoy enormous success across mobile platforms.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/14/4330122/blackberry-bringing-bbm-to-android-ios-this-summer


People who I knew who had BlackBerry's mostly said they only had them due to BBM. Seems like there is no more reasons to buy one if one of the main attractions is going to be available on iOS and Android.

[Mark]

Ah will, I suppose it'll appeal to the chavs so they can speak to all of their other friends if they steal someone's iPhone or Galaxy S.
On a serious note, I do agree with you. I think Blackberry are making a bad move as I can't see it catching on. There are far better substitutes i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype etc that I don't see this catching on.

[today]

whatsapp and snapchat are perfectly fine for me, sorry BBM!

[Adam]

I give it a year until they're on the brink of administration again.

[samsaBEAR]

About two years too late here, Blackberrys aren't as popular as they used to be and everyone uses Whatsapp or Kik. Nice idea, but poor timing.

[Chris]

No point when theres already so many universal instant messaging services out there. The only upside to it is that its free whereas whatsapp costs like 69p a year or something? Not whether thats something that off puts whatsapp users anyway.

[Mr-Trainor]

No point when theres already so many universal instant messaging services out there. The only upside to it is that its free whereas whatsapp costs like 69p a year or something? Not whether thats something that off puts whatsapp users anyway.
For WhatsApp on my iPhone I just paid 69p once. I have WhatsApp and so do a lot of my family and friends, so BBM will be of no use to me :P.

[Rixion]

What will be the point of Blackberrys then, since they're losing one of their main exclusive features.

[!x!dude!x!2]

Blackberry are crap in the first place . all my friends that had a black berry got a iPhone

[iLogan]

i use to have a blackberry and now on hindsight it was the worst phone i ever had but i do really miss it for bbm! whatsapp, kik and all those other instant messaging apps aren't the same.

bbm is blackberry's only major strength imo and sharing it with apple and android will kill bb's only attractive feature

[peteyt]

As people have said when I first saw this announcement earlier I thought simply one word - suicide.

For a while people claimed Blackberry was great simply because of BBM. Now not only do we have other possibly better messaging clients e.g. Whatsapp but soon BBM will be available to Android and the iPhone. It's like Microsoft selling Windows and xBox it's too main top sellers.

[CrazyColaist]

Blackberry are crap in the first place . all my friends that had a black berry got a iPhone if thats true then all your friends are sheep who cares about android ios and BB windows phone is the killer and if you dont believe me then i will be laughing at you in a year or two. go check out rooms (like bbm for wp8) it 10x better, you can share a calender, and do stuff what you'd do with a fridge (all your notes pictures etc etc) and it just so much better.

[Calum0812]

A lot of my friends have BBM but they also have Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat etc.
I have enough methods of them contacting me without BBM.

I mean, I text most people.

[AgnesIO]

if thats true then all your friends are sheep who cares about android ios and BB windows phone is the killer and if you dont believe me then i will be laughing at you in a year or two. go check out rooms (like bbm for wp8) it 10x better, you can share a calender, and do stuff what you'd do with a fridge (all your notes pictures etc etc) and it just so much better.

WP8? Don't make me laugh! Android has a market share about ten times that of WP8 I believe...

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[peteyt]

if thats true then all your friends are sheep who cares about android ios and BB windows phone is the killer and if you dont believe me then i will be laughing at you in a year or two. go check out rooms (like bbm for wp8) it 10x better, you can share a calender, and do stuff what you'd do with a fridge (all your notes pictures etc etc) and it just so much better.

Windows phone? You mean that phone with a lot less apps than all the other mobile OS's that doesn't seem to be making much of a splash.

While I'm not a fan of the iPhone if you like the iPhone you like the iPhone. Being a sheep is going to the phone because everyone else is but your telling everyone to run to Windows 8 phone and not really selling it. I have an s2 debating on getting an s3/s4 because they are great phones, great specs and great features but when my contract ends in October I will compare phones, features, pricing etc. It's people who just pick phones for fashion reasons that are the real sheeps

[xxMATTGxx]

if thats true then all your friends are sheep who cares about android ios and BB windows phone is the killer and if you dont believe me then i will be laughing at you in a year or two. go check out rooms (like bbm for wp8) it 10x better, you can share a calender, and do stuff what you'd do with a fridge (all your notes pictures etc etc) and it just so much better.

I am not sure if you are being serious or trolling :P

[Gibs960]

BlackBerry getting rid of their exclusivity with BBM is like apple putting iTunes on every mobile platform. Only reason people really buy a blackberry is for BBM and now they haven't even done that, bad move.

[Catchy]

BlackBerry getting rid of their exclusivity with BBM is like apple putting iTunes on every mobile platform. Only reason people really buy a blackberry is for BBM and now they haven't even done that, bad move.

I think people forget that blackberry's are essentially business devices. They're only really useful for security and email are they not?

[AgnesIO]

I am not sure if you are being serious or trolling :P

I did think the same thing..


I think people forget that blackberry's are essentially business devices. They're only really useful for security and email are they not?

They were pitched as business devices years ago - they are not even top for that anymore.

[Ashley]

My previous phone was a BlackBerry Torch, which I got primarily because of BBM during the big BlackBerry hype ~3 years ago. By the end of my contract I was barely even using BBM, favouring WhatsApp instead. BBM was one of the main - possibly only - appeals of getting a BlackBerry, and now that it's not exclusive I'm sure many people will opt for better phones and operating systems, leaving BlackBerry to fall even further into decline.

I personally won't be downloading it because nobody I know still uses a BlackBerry.

[CrazyColaist]

I am not sure if you are being serious or trolling :P


no im being quite serious

steve jobs is dead. and he had the brain of apple.

while WP8/W8 isnt the best, its better attempt than what apple had with ios 1.0/2.0

and while windows phone 8 doesnt have much apps just wait till they merge the

the next xbox - WP8 - Windows 8
then your be crying :)

[AgnesIO]

no im being quite serious

steve jobs is dead. and he had the brain of apple.

while WP8/W8 isnt the best, its better attempt than what apple had with ios 1.0/2.0

and while windows phone 8 doesnt have much apps just wait till they merge the

the next xbox - WP8 - Windows 8
then your be crying :)

But WP8 isn't Microsoft's first attempt at a mobile phone OS, so the Apple comparison doesn't really work.

I do think the last point is a very good one though. This is partially why the next Xbox excites me, because I am picturing excellent integration with W8.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[xxMATTGxx]

no im being quite serious

steve jobs is dead. and he had the brain of apple.

while WP8/W8 isnt the best, its better attempt than what apple had with ios 1.0/2.0

and while windows phone 8 doesnt have much apps just wait till they merge the

the next xbox - WP8 - Windows 8
then your be crying :)

I just wanted to make sure before replying proper. I disagree with what you are saying with Windows Phone - You also can't use "you're just an Apple fanboy" to me either as I've actually used a Windows Phone for two years. While the OS and hardwar seemed to work just fine it was missing quite a few important features and was also missing a ton of apps that Android and iOS had available.

While I do like the interface of the OS - There is just a big miss of opportunity. WP could be so much more and could be so much better. Apps are also letting it down and while it will get better over the months it I couldn't wait any longer. This is why I jump ship over to an iPhone 5 - My first iPhone. I already used Android for a few years, WP a few years and now I'm using an iPhone. Which I have to say is a great device and there is plenty of apps that are worth installing.

Steve Jobs may be dead which is a shame as he was one of the people who made a lot of the decisions at Apple with the products. They still have the team who also were working with Jobs and also still have Ive.

------

In terms of Windows 8, I love it and have no problems with it. I installed it since day one of it being released. Xbox One - Looks quite interesting and I do like what I've seen so far.

[samsaBEAR]

no im being quite serious

steve jobs is dead. and he had the brain of apple.

while WP8/W8 isnt the best, its better attempt than what apple had with ios 1.0/2.0

and while windows phone 8 doesnt have much apps just wait till they merge the

the next xbox - WP8 - Windows 8
then your be crying :)

Windows Phone becoming as popular as Android or iOS? 10/10, would laugh again.

[CrazyColaist]

Windows Phone becoming as popular as Android or iOS? 10/10, would laugh again.


Haha it just moved to 3rd place mate & its growing quite fast. faster than what the iphone 1 and whatever android 1.0 was with the first 6 months go do some research.

the apps suck yeah i agree. but its getting support. and with Windows 8, Xbox One, And Windows Phone 8, All one Architecture, Its easy to port apps from one to the other, It'll get support just wait,

And ok 2nd attempt, but i didnt really think about WP7 as it was crap.


But the BlackBerry and Windows Phone numbers are dramatic changes from the same quarter a year ago. Windows Phone looks to be finally taking off, with 52 percent growth in December, January, and February of this year compared to the same three months in 2012. And BlackBerry is falling of a sales cliff, with an 81 percent plunge in sales.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/01/android-up-13-ios-down-7-blackberry-down-81-and-windows-phone-up-a-massive-52/

[AgnesIO]

Haha it just moved to 3rd place mate & its growing quite fast. faster than what the iphone 1 and whatever android 1.0 was with the first 6 months go do some research.

the apps suck yeah i agree. but its getting support. and with Windows 8, Xbox One, And Windows Phone 8, All one Architecture, Its easy to port apps from one to the other, It'll get support just wait,

And ok 2nd attempt, but i didnt really think about WP7 as it was crap.



http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/01/android-up-13-ios-down-7-blackberry-down-81-and-windows-phone-up-a-massive-52/

BUT IT ISN'T WP1, so you cannot keep comparing it to the first iPhone and first Android phone.

There was already Windows Mobile and WP7 - in fact, Microsoft got into the mobile phone war a long time before Google or Apple (7 years, in fact!)

It is far easier to make increase your sales by 50% if you only sold £1 to start with (meaning your sales increased to £1.50), than if your sales were £100,000,000 (meaning you would need to now sell £150,000,000 to achieve that same 50% growth). It is simple business logic.

[samsaBEAR]

Haha it just moved to 3rd place mate & its growing quite fast. faster than what the iphone 1 and whatever android 1.0 was with the first 6 months go do some research.

the apps suck yeah i agree. but its getting support. and with Windows 8, Xbox One, And Windows Phone 8, All one Architecture, Its easy to port apps from one to the other, It'll get support just wait,

And ok 2nd attempt, but i didnt really think about WP7 as it was crap.



http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/01/android-up-13-ios-down-7-blackberry-down-81-and-windows-phone-up-a-massive-52/

Third place is great, but then you remember the only other 'serious' competitor is Blackberry which still makes Windows Phone the second worst.

[Daltron]

finally :)