7 ms·

BlackBerry Messenger will launch on Android and iOS

58 points by zacharye 16y ago

stevefarnworth 16y ago
Hmm, whilst I welcome the move, I think it's a poor decision by RIM to do it. Seeing as most of my email is handled by Google Apps, the only real draw (and because of friends and family members with BlackBerrys, it was a large draw) for me to get a BlackBerry handset was BBM. If I can seamlessly instant message friends and family across platforms with the ease of use of BBM on a device like the HTC Desire HD, then that would be my preferred approach.
- joaquin_win 16y ago
  My thoughts exactly. They're signing their death sentence.
  - yellowbkpk 16y ago
    Maybe they realized their death sentence was already handed to them and are trying to shift to other business models. Externalizing what they feel is their core competency (they've had TV ads for BBM (not their phones or OS) for months now) and trying to monetize it may be a step in that direction.
  - beaumartinez 16y ago
    I think BlackBerry is doomed[1] anyway, especially with the increasing popularity of Android and iOS[2]. Although it does seem like a last-resort action: BBM is a very strong reason to switch and I know a lot of teenagers and young adults with BlackBerries solely because of it. [1] http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/12/blackberry_user.html http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/12/blackberry_u... [2] http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/02/smartphone_sale_1.html http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/02/smartphone_s...
  - protomyth 16y ago
    To be fair to RIM, they really are going to have a problem with selling hardware if they keep in the iPad or iPhone form factor space. They are up against Apple and HP who have the money and supply chain to manufacture units at a lower price. Samsung has its own manufacturing capability and an OS provided by Google. RIM seems to have some serious challenges to overcome. Maybe they think they will survive as a software play?
- gaius 16y ago
  Not if they charge a fiver or a tenner a month for it. It could be a goldmine. Remember that BB-anything works by a connection back to a RIM datacentre. That's how they did push before anyone else. It's why a BB device refers to itself as a "handheld", it's only a terminal onto BlackBerry backend services, you need the whole package.
  - stevefarnworth 16y ago
    Fair point, and I suppose that IMaaS is going to have a good profit margin, but the sheer numbers of people I know who have bought a BlackBerry handset because of BBM probably wouldn't have had it been available cross-platform.
    - unexpected 16y ago
      What's the average profit margin on a phone? $100-$150? Now imagine you bought a $10/month service - over the life of a contract, that's $240? 30% to apple - that's $168 - that's would be about breakeven - not including R&D costs, etc.
- r00fus 16y ago
  This would seemingly be akin to Apple releasing iMovie for Windows/Linux... unless they happen to sell content/services with it or use it as a base for their devices (ie, iTunes), I don't see how this move will do anything but dilute their platform.
olivercameron 16y ago
Now it becomes all apparent why BlackBerry was so heavy handed with Kik Messenger: http://kik.com/blog/2010/12/a-sad-day-in-waterloo http://kik.com/blog/2010/12/a-sad-day-in-waterloo
- terryjsmith 16y ago
  Agreed. The guy running Kik seems to be quite timid from what I've heard from friends and doesn't want to burn any bridges at RIM since he interned/worked there. What he needs to do now is get some hard evidence of this and start screaming David and Goliath and anti-competitive motive.
  - karanbhangui 16y ago
    I wouldn't place him as timid, he's a very smart person who's going to get what he wants.
    - terryjsmith 16y ago
      Yup, that sounds consistent with what I've heard, but I think he's taking the wrong strategy. He's playing RIM's game and they can crush him in legal fees and process; he needs to make this a PR issue and he's in a good position to do that.
  - budu3 16y ago
    Timid people can have killer business instincts. Don't let his outward demeanor fool you.
- alanh 16y ago
  Yup. I, for one, refuse to use BBM on my iPhone, as it would be condoning their treatment of Kik.
  - danudey 16y ago
    I, for one, support BBM on the iPhone, so as to show the average BB user that there's no reason to stick with BB anymore when there are better options aplenty out there.
rufo 16y ago
Forgive me, for I know little in the ways of BlackBerrys, but: what's so great about BBM? Why is it so much better then SMS/Google Voice/IM with push/Facebook Chat that people go out of their way to purchase BlackBerry devices?
- dzlobin 16y ago
  Its a pretty fantastic chat tool. It provides message status (read/delivered), an easy way to transfer contacts, photos and videos right in the IM and it let's you create groups. Groups share all the aforementioned benefits as well as group chat, shared calendars, lists and photos.
- unexpected 16y ago
  There are three advantages to BBM that i love: (on blackberry devices, don't know how they'll be on other platforms 1) BBM is essentially a text message that is free. This is handy when you're oversees (business execs) for example. You can be in Taiwan and shoot a BBM to your partner in SF without having to worry about some ridiculous charge. 2) Read Notification - BBM will tell you when your message has been read or not (as opposed to text messages) 3) Group Chat - BBM does this really well - very easy to text and have conversations with multiple people.
  - gaius 16y ago
    4) BBM barcodes for contacts/groups The "killer feature" of BBM tho' isn't any one thing, it's just that it's an incredibly polished, seamless experience, I have on my BB the Y!, MSN and Google clients and they are just clunky as hell compared to BBM. It's an absolute joy to use.
    - jlgosse 16y ago
      The barcode scanning is extremely flaky in my opinion, and in my experience will work on some devices and not on others.
    - joelhaasnoot 16y ago
      Don't know much about BBM, but do know I constantly see friends on facebook passing around their BBM PIN. Assume it's some sort of unique ID, but that's not exactly efficient...
shiftb 16y ago
This feels a little like when AOL switched to providing their webmail for free. For AOL it was a huge shift in strategy, but a necessary one. I'm not sure I completely understand how this helps RIM much, though. BBM is about the only I miss from my BlackBerry, and I would sign up in a minute if it was available on my phone. Still, that doesn't make me more inclined to buy a RIM device again.
- JonLim 16y ago
  "I'm not sure I completely understand how this helps RIM much, though. BBM is about the only I miss from my BlackBerry, and I would sign up in a minute if it was available on my phone. Still, that doesn't make me more inclined to buy a RIM device again." I think that's the key. Making BBM platform independent, while charging for usage, would be a great way to shift their business model in the face of declining hardware sales. They are getting their lunch eaten by iOS and Android, IMO, and offering BBM is a great way of expanding their market across the board. Will it negatively affect their hardware sales? Yes. Will it give them a good business model moving forward? I think so. I think it would be a very smart move, but the results will speak for themselves.
fertel 16y ago
I think this a big mistake by rim. It's one of the few reasons that users are still on their platform. They also just gave all of their users that won't leave for bbm a reason. Also, from the wording in the article it seems that it will be vastly crippled (messaging only), cost money, and won't be out for many months. Full disclosure: launching a mobile messaging app called freespeech at SXSW.
tomlin 16y ago
Kik just got kicked...again, so to speak.
rfolstad 16y ago
I really like the Blackberry strategy. The android application framework will be adopted to take advantage of the large app pool. Their new OS for playbook and phones going forward will be their proprietary qnx kernel and web browser along with their own app store with only approved android apps. They can control the experience and the app store to cut down on the crap apps and provide a more seamless interface. Rim might just turn out to be the Apple of the android world. Something both samsung and motorola tried but imo failed miserably. This news seems like a stepping stone in that direction. For the people saying its a bad idea for RIM to increase the number of people you can chat with on bbm i just dont see how this is a bad thing no matter how u spin it. If someone i need to talk to decides to go with an iPhone or Android phone then i might think about switching too since i can't bbm them anymore.
- haecib 16y ago
  >They can control the experience and the app store to cut down on the crap apps and provide a more seamless interface. I wonder if you'll be able to go outside of RIM for Android apps on the Playbook, or if they will act as a gatekeeper. Agree that gatekeeper is the way to go.
louhong 16y ago
This shows how desperate RIM is getting. I love my BB and the BBM service (for all the reasons below) and this a challenging business problem to solve. They've tried to combat their loss of market share with products (ie. Torch, Playbook) but that hasn't been doing well. They're losing enterprise customers to Apple so the last straw is extrapolating a service that BB users love. I sincerely hope this works but I'm not expecting that it will.
runjake 16y ago
I'm not a huge BB user. I use an iPhone. But one of its better features was BBM. It was installed on every BB out of the box. No signing in, or having to worry about launching the app or whatnot. You simply gave someone your PIN or email address and boom! connected. Truly "zero config". I had a BB for a short while because most of my friends at the time had a BB, and it was "free" unlike SMS. Then they all moved to iPhones and the point was moot. I'm not saying its viable now, but at one time, BBM was a very slick product. I wish Apple would do something similar with the iPhone (something slicker than FaceTime, but with a text chat option).
- olivercameron 16y ago
  The infrastructure is all there for Apple to do it, since you can now FaceTime someone with an email address.
  - hello_w0rld 16y ago
    I think the keyboard/keypad is still a major component to BBM's success. Typing on touchscreen keyboards is just too cumbersome.
kin 16y ago
Though most of you are probably thinking this is bad for RIM and shows how desperate they are (they should be, Playbook vs iPad 2), I'll probably fall in the small percentage that this actually keeps me with RIM. It sounds opposite but I stopped using BBM because everyone moved to Android or iPhone. Now that they have BBM, I can continue to use it and not regret being on Blackberry.
kunle 16y ago
The bigger question is - what is the blackberry vision? Yes, they've made BBM available to a much broader base, but it doesnt seem like they're really answering the challenges that iPhone and Android pose.
allwein 16y ago
I really think that RIM is actively trying to commit suicide. They keep iterating internally on the Playbook without putting something out on the market. They make developing for the Playbook natively a world of pain with a lousy SDK and tools. They're working on supporting Android apps on the Playbook, thus taking a doubleshot against native development. And now they're releasing BBM on Android and iOS, thus negating any real reason to get a Blackberry or a Playbook.
- haecib 16y ago
  I tend to agree, but perhaps they are looking at people leaving the BBM ecosystem for other platforms, and letting those who remain be able to keep connected to their friends and associates that have jumped for iOS and Android. Makes it easier for them to stay with RIM instead of following the pack? Not sure what the thinking is there. As far as the Playbook goes, I guess they are content just being hardware providers? Letting go of the app ecosystem like that and the potential for subscription services down the line seems odd.
orenmazor 16y ago
wow, what a terrible idea. my only blackberry wielding friends do so only because of their BBM addiction.

58 points by zacharye 16y ago

Hmm, whilst I welcome the move, I think it's a poor decision by RIM to do it. Seeing as most of my email is handled by Google Apps, the only real draw (and because of friends and family members with BlackBerrys, it was a large draw) for me to get a BlackBerry handset was BBM. If I can seamlessly instant message friends and family across platforms with the ease of use of BBM on a device like the HTC Desire HD, then that would be my preferred approach.

joaquin_win 16y ago
My thoughts exactly. They're signing their death sentence.
- yellowbkpk 16y ago
  Maybe they realized their death sentence was already handed to them and are trying to shift to other business models. Externalizing what they feel is their core competency (they've had TV ads for BBM (not their phones or OS) for months now) and trying to monetize it may be a step in that direction.
- beaumartinez 16y ago
  I think BlackBerry is doomed[1] anyway, especially with the increasing popularity of Android and iOS[2]. Although it does seem like a last-resort action: BBM is a very strong reason to switch and I know a lot of teenagers and young adults with BlackBerries solely because of it. [1] http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/12/blackberry_user.html http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/12/blackberry_u... [2] http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/02/smartphone_sale_1.html http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/02/smartphone_s...
- protomyth 16y ago
  To be fair to RIM, they really are going to have a problem with selling hardware if they keep in the iPad or iPhone form factor space. They are up against Apple and HP who have the money and supply chain to manufacture units at a lower price. Samsung has its own manufacturing capability and an OS provided by Google. RIM seems to have some serious challenges to overcome. Maybe they think they will survive as a software play?
gaius 16y ago
Not if they charge a fiver or a tenner a month for it. It could be a goldmine. Remember that BB-anything works by a connection back to a RIM datacentre. That's how they did push before anyone else. It's why a BB device refers to itself as a "handheld", it's only a terminal onto BlackBerry backend services, you need the whole package.
- stevefarnworth 16y ago
  Fair point, and I suppose that IMaaS is going to have a good profit margin, but the sheer numbers of people I know who have bought a BlackBerry handset because of BBM probably wouldn't have had it been available cross-platform.
  - unexpected 16y ago
    What's the average profit margin on a phone? $100-$150? Now imagine you bought a $10/month service - over the life of a contract, that's $240? 30% to apple - that's $168 - that's would be about breakeven - not including R&D costs, etc.
r00fus 16y ago
This would seemingly be akin to Apple releasing iMovie for Windows/Linux... unless they happen to sell content/services with it or use it as a base for their devices (ie, iTunes), I don't see how this move will do anything but dilute their platform.

olivercameron 16y ago

Now it becomes all apparent why BlackBerry was so heavy handed with Kik Messenger: http://kik.com/blog/2010/12/a-sad-day-in-waterloo http://kik.com/blog/2010/12/a-sad-day-in-waterloo

terryjsmith 16y ago
Agreed. The guy running Kik seems to be quite timid from what I've heard from friends and doesn't want to burn any bridges at RIM since he interned/worked there. What he needs to do now is get some hard evidence of this and start screaming David and Goliath and anti-competitive motive.
- karanbhangui 16y ago
  I wouldn't place him as timid, he's a very smart person who's going to get what he wants.
  - terryjsmith 16y ago
    Yup, that sounds consistent with what I've heard, but I think he's taking the wrong strategy. He's playing RIM's game and they can crush him in legal fees and process; he needs to make this a PR issue and he's in a good position to do that.
- budu3 16y ago
  Timid people can have killer business instincts. Don't let his outward demeanor fool you.
alanh 16y ago
Yup. I, for one, refuse to use BBM on my iPhone, as it would be condoning their treatment of Kik.
- danudey 16y ago
  I, for one, support BBM on the iPhone, so as to show the average BB user that there's no reason to stick with BB anymore when there are better options aplenty out there.

rufo 16y ago

Forgive me, for I know little in the ways of BlackBerrys, but: what's so great about BBM? Why is it so much better then SMS/Google Voice/IM with push/Facebook Chat that people go out of their way to purchase BlackBerry devices?

dzlobin 16y ago
Its a pretty fantastic chat tool. It provides message status (read/delivered), an easy way to transfer contacts, photos and videos right in the IM and it let's you create groups. Groups share all the aforementioned benefits as well as group chat, shared calendars, lists and photos.
unexpected 16y ago
There are three advantages to BBM that i love: (on blackberry devices, don't know how they'll be on other platforms 1) BBM is essentially a text message that is free. This is handy when you're oversees (business execs) for example. You can be in Taiwan and shoot a BBM to your partner in SF without having to worry about some ridiculous charge. 2) Read Notification - BBM will tell you when your message has been read or not (as opposed to text messages) 3) Group Chat - BBM does this really well - very easy to text and have conversations with multiple people.
- gaius 16y ago
  4) BBM barcodes for contacts/groups The "killer feature" of BBM tho' isn't any one thing, it's just that it's an incredibly polished, seamless experience, I have on my BB the Y!, MSN and Google clients and they are just clunky as hell compared to BBM. It's an absolute joy to use.
  - jlgosse 16y ago
    The barcode scanning is extremely flaky in my opinion, and in my experience will work on some devices and not on others.
  - joelhaasnoot 16y ago
    Don't know much about BBM, but do know I constantly see friends on facebook passing around their BBM PIN. Assume it's some sort of unique ID, but that's not exactly efficient...

shiftb 16y ago

This feels a little like when AOL switched to providing their webmail for free. For AOL it was a huge shift in strategy, but a necessary one. I'm not sure I completely understand how this helps RIM much, though. BBM is about the only I miss from my BlackBerry, and I would sign up in a minute if it was available on my phone. Still, that doesn't make me more inclined to buy a RIM device again.

JonLim 16y ago
"I'm not sure I completely understand how this helps RIM much, though. BBM is about the only I miss from my BlackBerry, and I would sign up in a minute if it was available on my phone. Still, that doesn't make me more inclined to buy a RIM device again." I think that's the key. Making BBM platform independent, while charging for usage, would be a great way to shift their business model in the face of declining hardware sales. They are getting their lunch eaten by iOS and Android, IMO, and offering BBM is a great way of expanding their market across the board. Will it negatively affect their hardware sales? Yes. Will it give them a good business model moving forward? I think so. I think it would be a very smart move, but the results will speak for themselves.

fertel 16y ago

I think this a big mistake by rim. It's one of the few reasons that users are still on their platform. They also just gave all of their users that won't leave for bbm a reason. Also, from the wording in the article it seems that it will be vastly crippled (messaging only), cost money, and won't be out for many months. Full disclosure: launching a mobile messaging app called freespeech at SXSW.

tomlin 16y ago

Kik just got kicked...again, so to speak.

rfolstad 16y ago

I really like the Blackberry strategy. The android application framework will be adopted to take advantage of the large app pool. Their new OS for playbook and phones going forward will be their proprietary qnx kernel and web browser along with their own app store with only approved android apps. They can control the experience and the app store to cut down on the crap apps and provide a more seamless interface. Rim might just turn out to be the Apple of the android world. Something both samsung and motorola tried but imo failed miserably. This news seems like a stepping stone in that direction. For the people saying its a bad idea for RIM to increase the number of people you can chat with on bbm i just dont see how this is a bad thing no matter how u spin it. If someone i need to talk to decides to go with an iPhone or Android phone then i might think about switching too since i can't bbm them anymore.

haecib 16y ago
>They can control the experience and the app store to cut down on the crap apps and provide a more seamless interface. I wonder if you'll be able to go outside of RIM for Android apps on the Playbook, or if they will act as a gatekeeper. Agree that gatekeeper is the way to go.

louhong 16y ago

This shows how desperate RIM is getting. I love my BB and the BBM service (for all the reasons below) and this a challenging business problem to solve. They've tried to combat their loss of market share with products (ie. Torch, Playbook) but that hasn't been doing well. They're losing enterprise customers to Apple so the last straw is extrapolating a service that BB users love. I sincerely hope this works but I'm not expecting that it will.

runjake 16y ago

I'm not a huge BB user. I use an iPhone. But one of its better features was BBM. It was installed on every BB out of the box. No signing in, or having to worry about launching the app or whatnot. You simply gave someone your PIN or email address and boom! connected. Truly "zero config". I had a BB for a short while because most of my friends at the time had a BB, and it was "free" unlike SMS. Then they all moved to iPhones and the point was moot. I'm not saying its viable now, but at one time, BBM was a very slick product. I wish Apple would do something similar with the iPhone (something slicker than FaceTime, but with a text chat option).

olivercameron 16y ago
The infrastructure is all there for Apple to do it, since you can now FaceTime someone with an email address.
- hello_w0rld 16y ago
  I think the keyboard/keypad is still a major component to BBM's success. Typing on touchscreen keyboards is just too cumbersome.

kin 16y ago

Though most of you are probably thinking this is bad for RIM and shows how desperate they are (they should be, Playbook vs iPad 2), I'll probably fall in the small percentage that this actually keeps me with RIM. It sounds opposite but I stopped using BBM because everyone moved to Android or iPhone. Now that they have BBM, I can continue to use it and not regret being on Blackberry.

kunle 16y ago

The bigger question is - what is the blackberry vision? Yes, they've made BBM available to a much broader base, but it doesnt seem like they're really answering the challenges that iPhone and Android pose.

allwein 16y ago

I really think that RIM is actively trying to commit suicide. They keep iterating internally on the Playbook without putting something out on the market. They make developing for the Playbook natively a world of pain with a lousy SDK and tools. They're working on supporting Android apps on the Playbook, thus taking a doubleshot against native development. And now they're releasing BBM on Android and iOS, thus negating any real reason to get a Blackberry or a Playbook.

haecib 16y ago
I tend to agree, but perhaps they are looking at people leaving the BBM ecosystem for other platforms, and letting those who remain be able to keep connected to their friends and associates that have jumped for iOS and Android. Makes it easier for them to stay with RIM instead of following the pack? Not sure what the thinking is there. As far as the Playbook goes, I guess they are content just being hardware providers? Letting go of the app ecosystem like that and the potential for subscription services down the line seems odd.

orenmazor 16y ago

wow, what a terrible idea. my only blackberry wielding friends do so only because of their BBM addiction.