
BBM for Android and iPhone is here - valjavec
http://global.blackberry.com/bbm.html
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untog
A few years ago this would have been a killer app. Now I don't know a single
person that owns a Blackberry (outside of a few that have them as work phones
- and so, I won't BBM them)

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hahainternet
Don't ask me why, but young women for some reason have them. I can't get a
straight answer out of them either.

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NN88
BBs are cheap and easy to text on.

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alex_anglin
Further to your point about cheap, traditionally BBMs wouldn't incur text
message fees. These days though it seems like carriers offer plans with a
sufficient number of text messages for most people... which isn't a surprise
given the huge markup that they've always had.

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songgao
Downloaded, installed, and opened App hoping to see a modern Blackberry. And
here's what I got:

    
    
        Due to the incredible demand there is a line-up to start using BBM.
    

Incredible demand? You just launched it and there's not even a review on App
Store yet. Not sure if this is part of their marketing or something, but now I
feel bothered and not expecting at all. Btw, the UI of the "line-up" screen
really needs some refinement IMHO.

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bigdubs
It seems like they're trying to stoke artificial demand (similar to the
Mailbox.app roll out). Except I doubt there is a real technical problem
backing said slow rollout.

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msh
BBM alledgedly had load issues because of a leaked android version maybe a
month ago....

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shurcooL
I'm gonna download this and try to use it on my iOS device. Not because I care
about BlackBerry, but because I highly support the fact it's available on iOS,
Android, and BlackBerry.

I really really want iMessage to be available on other platforms too, so I can
use it to contact people without iOS.

So I'm doing this to send a message and show my support.

~~~
untog
Or just download WhatsApp. You can even get that on Symbian phones.

iMessage depresses me. It's great. It integrates with the OS on a level that
Apple is never going to allow anyone else to do. And they're not going to let
anyone else use the iMessage network, either.

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MarcScott
I don't get why Blackberry would do this. Quite a large number of my students
have Blackberry devices (its fairly popular with under 16s still), and when I
ask them why, they inevitable lament the awful phone but say they need it as
their friends use BBM. Now they have exactly zero reasons to purchase new
Blackberrys.

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ceejayoz
At some point, those folks aren't going to tolerate shitty hardware for BBM,
especially as their friends give up on it. Relying on BBM as the sole selling
point for hardware is doomed to failure.

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Angostura
I agree. And yet, and yet... at the moment, it's pretty much all they've got,
and they're giving it away.

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yefim
The Android app is atrocious. I guess I didn't expect much more out of
Blackberry.

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interconnector
Why is it atrocious? Other reviewers are ranking it close to 4.5/5\.
(source:[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bbm&hl=en](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bbm&hl=en))

~~~
shuw
I sampled a few of the reviews and the regularity of text patterns is just
plainly obvious. I don't believe these are real reviews.

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booruguru
At this point I don't know why they even bother releasing new products that
are doomed to fail. Releasing products that are DOA will only cause their
stock price/company value to plummet even further and ultimately make the
company less attractive to potential buyers while eroding the potential sale
price of the company at the shareholders's expense.

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jbrooksuk
Their application is poor. They're trying to build up hype using the same
technique as Mailbox. Only, their app is poorly designed — the smiley for
instance doesn't seem to be retina — and they've missed out a crucial element
which built up further hype with Mailbox, the counter.

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cmsimike
I will happily replace any third party messenger I currently use with one that
sends notifications to all my devices (like iMessage does). I haven't tried
this with BBM yet but does anyone know of a third party service that would
send messages to all my devices with the app installed?

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modeless
Google Hangouts

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apunic
+1, Google Hangout does a great job on this + archiving the conversations in
your mail inbox.

Another one is Facebook, where you do not have to request a messaging
connection to the other party.

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joekrill
Wow this app just feels so.... crappy. The UI just feels very amateurish. The
whole smiley face logo thing or whatever it is makes me feel like I'm using
AIM circa 1999.

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tn13
It is not there yet. When you install it it says "There is a line for this
app, you will have to wait". (or something like that).

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kaoD
I'm so sorry for the engineers who worked on this. Working on a Dead-Before-
Arrival project must be depressing.

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jammur
It's interesting that they have a waiting list. I guess it could just be for
marketing purposes, but you'd think that BB probably has the most experience
of any company building scalable messaging infrastructure. I can't imagine
their system would buckle under the load of a couple million users.

~~~
simonk
They tried to release it a few weeks ago and it didn't work under the stress.
So I'm guessing this is to let it build up a little slower.

~~~
jammur
I'm sure you're right. I just don't understand how this is a problem that
Blackberry could have. They've been doing high volume messaging for longer
than anyone. This is a terrible analogy, but it would be like McDonalds having
a waiting list for Big Macs at some random new low volume location because
they don't know how to make them fast enough. I say low volume because the
additional BBM users they're getting from Android and iOS (I would imagine low
to mid single digit millions in the short term) can't possibly compare to the
number of existing users they have on Blackberry devices.

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apunic
As much as I love(d) Blackberries, the messaging experience and the BBM—this
page looks like pure irony.

5 years ago, yes, this would be massive and had the potential to get bigger
than any other messenger. But now, where tons of messengers are avail with
Whatsapp leading the way, no chance.

This is so sad.

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auctiontheory
The iPhone login process is so broken it's sad. We can read about BlackBerry's
grand strategic errors, but maybe it's simpler: they just forgot how to
execute.

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acc00
"This item cannot be installed in your device's country."

?

I wouldn't mind having something akin to Blackberry Hub on my Android, yet I'm
not sure I need another messenger.

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jtgeibel
Google Play shows this as incompatible with both of my tablets (Nexus 7 and
10), so apparently this is only installable on phone models.

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JimmaDaRustla
Was expecting it to be available on my Palm Pre...

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jedanbik
As a never-time Blackberry user, I cannot think of one single reason I would
want to install this on my iPhone.

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joshstevens
Hurray! Now I can send a message via BBM to my one friend (soon to be buying
an iPhone) with a Blackberry!

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Zaheer
Searching for BBM on the iOS App Store shows BBM only after flipping through
7-8 apps

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robmorgan
they are soo late! Sorry BB!

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mrmondo
Blackberry? What's that?

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auctiontheory
I wonder what the BlackBerry Babes will have to say about this. Is an Android
running BBM as desirable as a BlackBerry?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lDJGHCX2wA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lDJGHCX2wA)

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auctiontheory
I'm curious why an on-topic link to a popular TV show (yes, popular culture
exists outside the US) is being so downvoted.

