6 ms·

Why would an Android or iPhone user install BBM? I don't get the value proposition here. I'm not being disingenuous.

by xutopia 13y ago

umsm 13y ago
I'm wondering the same thing. iMessage offers all of what they are stating as features. But, I have never really used a Blackberry device before. Additionally, I wonder if releasing this sooner would've saved them or changed history a little...
- ojilles 13y ago
  I have owned a blackberry for years, used intensively. If they had done this way earlier, it could have saved them a bit. However, I think what they would have had to do is the other way around: a iMessage app on a blackberry. Obviously wasn't going to happen either.
- netcraft 13y ago
  I think the fact that they are releasing it now is an admission of defeat. I know a few people that kept their blackberry as long as they did only because of BBM, so I can understand them not releasing it sooner, but I agree, a couple of years ago you might have convinced someone that blackberry was a good platform because they liked the bbm service on the iphone. A long shot maybe, but at least a shot.
- MAGZine 13y ago
  EXCEPT iMessage isn't Crossplatform. I'd install iMessage on my nexus 4 if it was a drop-in replacement for my SMS client and was a solid, Apple-quality app.
- shurcooL 13y ago
  Message Protocol X: supports chat, runs on iOS Message Protocol Y: supports chat, runs on iOS, Android, Blackberry. I absolutely love iMessage, but I hate that I can't use it with anyone who owns android.
- justincormack 13y ago
  blackberry phones are much cheaper than iphones, thats the market
apaprocki 13y ago
So that you can communicate for free with other Blackberry users. I do not have unlimited SMS, so avoiding the racket that is pay-per-message is desirable in any form.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Anecdotal perhaps, but I know no-one who uses a Blackberry. 5 years a go, dozens of people I know used one, but nowadays? None.
  - SCdF 13y ago
    Anecdotal definitely. Cell phone markets change lots depending on country, and no one has lived everywhere. As someone upthread said, they are used a lot by kids in the UK, for example. FWIW, in my social circle and outer circles phone ownership is probably 70% android, 10% windows, 5% apple and 15% dumb phone, so yeah, different strokes for different folks.
    - RandallBrown 13y ago
      Where in the world do you live that Windows Phone beats iPhone? I work for Microsoft and still know way more people with iPhones.
      - yesplorer 13y ago
        if you really work for Microsoft, you would perhaps have known that there are certain countries where Windows phone outsell the Iphone because there are no carrier subsidies and the Iphone is freaking expensive! Buying an Iphone for $99 because it is subsidized[0] is a 1 percenter solution in global terms. [0]I use the word even though I doubt it is the right word since it's more like purchased on credit actually because you're going to pay for it over your contract period hence that isn't how subsidy should be used
  - sudomal 13y ago
    Blackberry is still dominant in certain niches. The combination of the: low cost, physical keyboard and messaging makes it popular for youths to communicate unnoticed. It's also well suited for enterprise.
oakwhiz 13y ago
There are some social groups in which everyone uses BBM as the de facto messaging service. Some carriers offer plans with unlimited BBM messaging but limited (or expensive) data and/or SMS. Additionally, peer pressure and indifference to change may be a factor (if all the cool people you know are using BBM, why should anyone switch?)
mattmaroon 13y ago
Because they have not yet discovered Facebook chat. Or WhatsApp. Or Skype.
jmcintyre 13y ago
In some parts of the world, BBM is the place where all your friends are. And people tend to use the service where all their friends are or risk being left out. I guess many HN users have accounts on Gchat, MSN, AOL, Skype, Yahoo Messenger. Why did they create them? Because they wanted to chat with someone they know or recently met. If a guy met a girl at a concert and she gave him her BBM id instead of a phone number, they'd be installing BBM post-haste, trust me!
justincormack 13y ago
Here all the kids on the buses have blackberries, the London riots were run over BBM. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-facebook-twitter-blackberry http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-fa...
- da_n 13y ago
  It is weird how a business phone caught on just because of BBM.
  - wcfields 13y ago
    Text Messages / SMS cost a LOT outside of the US. With very few offering decent text packages. Everyone I met in Mexico City used Whatsapp. I suspect BBM caught on in England for the same reason.
- acchow 13y ago
  The London riots? Of 2011? They should have release BBM for iPhone and Android 2 years ago.
  - selectstar 13y ago
    Extrapolote that thought; it's only now that those kids (who grew up with BBM) are in charge of their own financial destinty. They might be used to having BBM in their lives and if they can get it on a new "cool" phone then that will make it popular. (To an extent.)
- patrickaljord 13y ago
  That was two years ago, is that still the case?
darklajid 13y ago
It's the same for every messaging solution. Here, locally, it's WhatsApp right now that is even more annoying and therefor worse than Facebook (the number 2). Depending on your social graph, the 'What? You're not on <insertServiceHere>?' question is what drives a large number of people to use otherwise utterly crappy services (Hey, WhatsApp!). BBM seems to be another niche here.
- christoph 13y ago
  I'm really intrigued why whatsapp is more annoying than facebook? There is no system of adverts or selling data to it, since they actually charge for usage. I paid after 1 year free about 6 months ago. I have pretty much every real life friend I care about on there, individually and numerous private groups. We regularly share photos, text, video, locations, etc. privately (as far as we are aware). To me it perfectly fits the box of exactly what a social network should be. It just works... This is why i'm so intrigued why you dislike it?
  - majani 13y ago
    The need to appear intellectual by disliking popular things is strong in this forum.
    - darklajid 13y ago
      Really? That's what you think if someone disagrees? Is your comment another version of the same 'trend' you see, trying to appear intellectual by assuming that other people just 'hate' for no reason?
  - Apocryphon 13y ago
    Doesn't whatsapp have infamously bad security, despite its popularity? http://fileperms.org/whatsapp-is-broken-really-broken/ http://fileperms.org/whatsapp-is-broken-really-broken/ http://samgranger.com/whatsapp-is-using-imei-numbers-as-passwords/ http://samgranger.com/whatsapp-is-using-imei-numbers-as-pass...
sah2ed 13y ago
BBM is hugely popular in emerging markets, especially in Africa for instance.
HorizonXP 13y ago
For me, Facebook Messenger doesn't fit my needs. It's terrible on BB10 since they put 0 effort into making it for that platform. On Android, I agree, it's great. Likely the same for iOS. Whatsapp is the closest in terms of achieving true cross-platform usability. It's a great client on BB10, and on Android. That said, I rarely use it since most of my messaging is done via BBM or Facebook. The user engagement just seems to be higher on those platform. @gehr (Gary Klassen, inventor of BBM) really put it best when he said (paraphrasing) that in general, social networks fit various needs: Twitter - I want to talk to many people at large. LinkedIn - I want to talk to colleagues and business partners. Facebook - I want to talk to my extended friends and family network. BBM - I want to talk to people I really care about. And that's exactly how it's been for me for the last several years. My BBM contact list is limited to a few key people that I generally talk to or interact with in some capacity. I say and share things on there that I wouldn't anywhere else. In addition, the new BBM features they've added in BB10, like BBM Voice, BBM Video, and Screen Sharing are pretty freakin fantastic. I use those features daily, and I think it'll be great when it comes to the other platforms. An interesting use case that I've found for Screen Sharing is being able to have users demonstrate issues or bugs they're seeing in my apps. In any case, there's definitely a place for BBM here. I'll be encouraging a lot of my friends to grab it. Maybe even my parents, though I'm not sure I want to keep getting messages from them, LOL.

Why would an Android or iPhone user install BBM? I don't get the value proposition here. I'm not being disingenuous.

by xutopia 13y ago

Why would an Android or iPhone user install BBM? I don't get the value proposition here. I'm not being disingenuous.

umsm 13y ago

I'm wondering the same thing. iMessage offers all of what they are stating as features. But, I have never really used a Blackberry device before. Additionally, I wonder if releasing this sooner would've saved them or changed history a little...

ojilles 13y ago
I have owned a blackberry for years, used intensively. If they had done this way earlier, it could have saved them a bit. However, I think what they would have had to do is the other way around: a iMessage app on a blackberry. Obviously wasn't going to happen either.
netcraft 13y ago
I think the fact that they are releasing it now is an admission of defeat. I know a few people that kept their blackberry as long as they did only because of BBM, so I can understand them not releasing it sooner, but I agree, a couple of years ago you might have convinced someone that blackberry was a good platform because they liked the bbm service on the iphone. A long shot maybe, but at least a shot.
MAGZine 13y ago
EXCEPT iMessage isn't Crossplatform. I'd install iMessage on my nexus 4 if it was a drop-in replacement for my SMS client and was a solid, Apple-quality app.
shurcooL 13y ago
Message Protocol X: supports chat, runs on iOS Message Protocol Y: supports chat, runs on iOS, Android, Blackberry. I absolutely love iMessage, but I hate that I can't use it with anyone who owns android.
justincormack 13y ago
blackberry phones are much cheaper than iphones, thats the market

apaprocki 13y ago

So that you can communicate for free with other Blackberry users. I do not have unlimited SMS, so avoiding the racket that is pay-per-message is desirable in any form.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago
Anecdotal perhaps, but I know no-one who uses a Blackberry. 5 years a go, dozens of people I know used one, but nowadays? None.
- SCdF 13y ago
  Anecdotal definitely. Cell phone markets change lots depending on country, and no one has lived everywhere. As someone upthread said, they are used a lot by kids in the UK, for example. FWIW, in my social circle and outer circles phone ownership is probably 70% android, 10% windows, 5% apple and 15% dumb phone, so yeah, different strokes for different folks.
  - RandallBrown 13y ago
    Where in the world do you live that Windows Phone beats iPhone? I work for Microsoft and still know way more people with iPhones.
    - yesplorer 13y ago
      if you really work for Microsoft, you would perhaps have known that there are certain countries where Windows phone outsell the Iphone because there are no carrier subsidies and the Iphone is freaking expensive! Buying an Iphone for $99 because it is subsidized[0] is a 1 percenter solution in global terms. [0]I use the word even though I doubt it is the right word since it's more like purchased on credit actually because you're going to pay for it over your contract period hence that isn't how subsidy should be used
- sudomal 13y ago
  Blackberry is still dominant in certain niches. The combination of the: low cost, physical keyboard and messaging makes it popular for youths to communicate unnoticed. It's also well suited for enterprise.

oakwhiz 13y ago

There are some social groups in which everyone uses BBM as the de facto messaging service. Some carriers offer plans with unlimited BBM messaging but limited (or expensive) data and/or SMS. Additionally, peer pressure and indifference to change may be a factor (if all the cool people you know are using BBM, why should anyone switch?)

mattmaroon 13y ago

Because they have not yet discovered Facebook chat. Or WhatsApp. Or Skype.

jmcintyre 13y ago

In some parts of the world, BBM is the place where all your friends are. And people tend to use the service where all their friends are or risk being left out. I guess many HN users have accounts on Gchat, MSN, AOL, Skype, Yahoo Messenger. Why did they create them? Because they wanted to chat with someone they know or recently met. If a guy met a girl at a concert and she gave him her BBM id instead of a phone number, they'd be installing BBM post-haste, trust me!

justincormack 13y ago

Here all the kids on the buses have blackberries, the London riots were run over BBM. http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-facebook-twitter-blackberry http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-fa...

da_n 13y ago
It is weird how a business phone caught on just because of BBM.
- wcfields 13y ago
  Text Messages / SMS cost a LOT outside of the US. With very few offering decent text packages. Everyone I met in Mexico City used Whatsapp. I suspect BBM caught on in England for the same reason.
acchow 13y ago
The London riots? Of 2011? They should have release BBM for iPhone and Android 2 years ago.
- selectstar 13y ago
  Extrapolote that thought; it's only now that those kids (who grew up with BBM) are in charge of their own financial destinty. They might be used to having BBM in their lives and if they can get it on a new "cool" phone then that will make it popular. (To an extent.)
patrickaljord 13y ago
That was two years ago, is that still the case?

darklajid 13y ago

It's the same for every messaging solution. Here, locally, it's WhatsApp right now that is even more annoying and therefor worse than Facebook (the number 2). Depending on your social graph, the 'What? You're not on <insertServiceHere>?' question is what drives a large number of people to use otherwise utterly crappy services (Hey, WhatsApp!). BBM seems to be another niche here.

christoph 13y ago
I'm really intrigued why whatsapp is more annoying than facebook? There is no system of adverts or selling data to it, since they actually charge for usage. I paid after 1 year free about 6 months ago. I have pretty much every real life friend I care about on there, individually and numerous private groups. We regularly share photos, text, video, locations, etc. privately (as far as we are aware). To me it perfectly fits the box of exactly what a social network should be. It just works... This is why i'm so intrigued why you dislike it?
- majani 13y ago
  The need to appear intellectual by disliking popular things is strong in this forum.
  - darklajid 13y ago
    Really? That's what you think if someone disagrees? Is your comment another version of the same 'trend' you see, trying to appear intellectual by assuming that other people just 'hate' for no reason?
- Apocryphon 13y ago
  Doesn't whatsapp have infamously bad security, despite its popularity? http://fileperms.org/whatsapp-is-broken-really-broken/ http://fileperms.org/whatsapp-is-broken-really-broken/ http://samgranger.com/whatsapp-is-using-imei-numbers-as-passwords/ http://samgranger.com/whatsapp-is-using-imei-numbers-as-pass...

sah2ed 13y ago

BBM is hugely popular in emerging markets, especially in Africa for instance.

HorizonXP 13y ago

For me, Facebook Messenger doesn't fit my needs. It's terrible on BB10 since they put 0 effort into making it for that platform. On Android, I agree, it's great. Likely the same for iOS. Whatsapp is the closest in terms of achieving true cross-platform usability. It's a great client on BB10, and on Android. That said, I rarely use it since most of my messaging is done via BBM or Facebook. The user engagement just seems to be higher on those platform. @gehr (Gary Klassen, inventor of BBM) really put it best when he said (paraphrasing) that in general, social networks fit various needs: Twitter - I want to talk to many people at large. LinkedIn - I want to talk to colleagues and business partners. Facebook - I want to talk to my extended friends and family network. BBM - I want to talk to people I really care about. And that's exactly how it's been for me for the last several years. My BBM contact list is limited to a few key people that I generally talk to or interact with in some capacity. I say and share things on there that I wouldn't anywhere else. In addition, the new BBM features they've added in BB10, like BBM Voice, BBM Video, and Screen Sharing are pretty freakin fantastic. I use those features daily, and I think it'll be great when it comes to the other platforms. An interesting use case that I've found for Screen Sharing is being able to have users demonstrate issues or bugs they're seeing in my apps. In any case, there's definitely a place for BBM here. I'll be encouraging a lot of my friends to grab it. Maybe even my parents, though I'm not sure I want to keep getting messages from them, LOL.