

BBM for iOS and Android to Launch This Summer - fudged71
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2013/05/bbm-ios-android/

======
untog
The clever thing about iMessage is that no-one even knows they are using it.
On iOS at least, that's going to make it very hard to beat.

On Android there is more scope, but if, as expected, Google launch their
cross-platform messaging service at IO, it'll be in direct competition with
BBM. It'll be interesting to see if either brings a killer feature- I have a
horrible suspicion that Blackberry will deliberately hobble their featureset
on Android and iOS in order to push people towards Blackberry devices. That
would be a horrible, horrible mistake.

~~~
AlexMuir
But the daft thing about iMessage is that no-one even knows they are using it.
Most non-tech people I know don't even know there are two types of message.
They've installed Whatsapp to message their friends on iPhones. When I say
that iMessage is free they don't really get it at all.

~~~
hadem
I feel the same way about iCloud. I know it is there and it backs up some of
my data. I wouldn't be able to tell you which apps use iCloud and what data it
is storing though. I don't think it is obvious enough to the end users, it is
too transparent, which creates confusion and misunderstanding. I've given up
on iCloud...

------
HorizonXP
If any of you have followed my posts, you'll know that I've been a big fan of
what BlackBerry have been doing with their platform.

I think this is a bold move on the part of BlackBerry and I'm not sure how it
will play out. On the one hand, the problem many users had with being on
BlackBerry is that their non-BlackBerry using friends couldn't be reached on
BBM. On the other hand, BBM is also the thing keeping some users from jumping
to another platform. I think BlackBerry is hoping the net migration rate is in
their favour, and for their sake I hope it's true.

Personally, I love my Z10, and it fits my workflow wonderfully. It's also a
sheer joy to develop for. I think there are 10s of millions who agree with me.
Will it be a larger number than iOS and Android users? Likely not, but I'm not
sure it has to be.

For those knocking the platform, at least try it before you do. And keep an
open mind about it, knowing that it fits for many people. I love what iPhone
and Android do, but they're just not for me.

Finally, everyone needs to understand that BBM is much more than a messaging
platform. While it may have similarities with the competitors mentioned, but
the fact is that it does things that no one else has matched. The tight
integration at the OS level allows really amazing things to be done by
application developers. With that in mind, the BBM released on other platforms
will likely be mostly about messaging simply due to the OS integration
required. Doable on Android, hard on iOS.

All in all, there's a lot of excitement here at BlackBerry Live. I think
they're doing some amazing things with the platform, and I am happy to
continue supporting and championing them.

------
desigooner
This might be a little too late (more like a year or 2) with the multitude of
IM apps out there like Whatsapp, Line, Viber in addition to iMessage, Facebook
Messenger & Google's rumored new app, Babel.

Pretty much everyone I know uses WhatsApp (which has replaced a few google
groups/yahoo groups for me) and Facebook messenger.

------
lambersley
I have long been a BlackBerry fan. It was difficult to let go of BBM. My Torch
was simply to make phone calls, send emails, listen to music and instant
message (bbm). It did those things much better than any one device. I made the
switch to Android (SGN II) earlier this year. When BB10 launched, I got the
z10. I figured it would solve all the other problems. I was wrong. I tried to
return the device; I couldn't. I tried to sell it; didn't happen. So I kept it
as my secondary device; simply for BBM.

Now (summer), why in the world would I need BB hardware?

~~~
rescripting
I'm curious, what problems had you hoped the Z10 would solve, and in what way
did it fall short? I'm considering the switch.

~~~
lambersley
Particularly rich media streaming and basic application availability.

BB10 now allows you to browse the web without fault (and includes Flash).
Things like banking applications I couldn't live without. Of the advertised
"thousands and thousands" of applications in BlackBerry World, I have only
downloaded two (2).

Unfortunately the things that previous versions of BBOS were great at (phone,
messaging, heat dissipation, sound amplification) were no where to be found on
BB10.

------
wheaties
Good for them! I'm happy for all their engineers, designers and people. That's
how you stay relevant or at least carve out some value from a dying tech
business.

~~~
themstheones
Blackberry was dying a year ago. They're doing quite well now.

~~~
amitdugar
Oh they are ? I seriously was thinking it is still downhill for RIM. Glad to
know they still have hope.

~~~
purephase
They've re-branded and launched a new mobile OS and two accompanying handsets
to pretty decent acclaim.

That, and their stock value has doubled in the past 6 months.

------
dc2447
The difference between iMessage and BBM is reliability. Anyone who has used
iMessage on multiple devices will no doubt attest to the delivery issues.

I'm fairly ok with Keynote presentations taking time to sync down or issues
with photostream syncing but when a message from my wife asking me to pick up
the kids from school comes in three hours later then I have a massive issue
with the product.

Why does apple find it so hard to get online services right?

Ironically in my experience BBM 'just works' the way Apple products used to.

By the way I would not be surprised to see Apple blocking BBM as it duplicates
existing functionality on IOS

~~~
a_c_s
I've had an iPhone since iMessage came out & I can recall no delivery issues
(unless you count when my iPad gets a message a few seconds before my iPhone).

~~~
jeffasinger
I've had issues with repeat delivery of messages days later, and different
devices getting messages hours apart before.

------
javis
This would have killed iMessage a year ago.

------
Legion
Interesting. I've used Beluga, WhatsApp, Brightkite and GroupMe, none of which
were ever truly satisfying, mostly because there's no strong network effect in
place - anyone I messaged with these apps was someone I bugged to install and
use it.

BBM brings to the table a sizable entrenched user base. I agree with the
person that said this would have been an iMessage killer a year ago. But this
will be crossplatform and iMessage is not. Good for us who aren't living
entirely in the Apple ecosystem.

~~~
terhechte
Interesting, here in Germany literally everybody I know uses WhatsApp.
Especially the non-tech people. (Well, everybody under 45. Those without
smartphones are excluded, of course)

~~~
CrazedGeek
Huh. In my part of the US, it seems the only people who use it are kids who
have iPod touches and no cell phones.

~~~
g8oz
WhatsApp requires a phone number and will not work on iPod touch or iPad.

~~~
lzy
[http://www.redmondpie.com/whatsapp-for-ipad-
ipad-2-whatspad-...](http://www.redmondpie.com/whatsapp-for-ipad-
ipad-2-whatspad-download-how-to-install/)

------
leoedin
I can't help feeling that they're at least a year too late. At one point, BBM
was used by a lot of people. A year ago there was a void for multimedia
messaging and group messaging that wasn't really filled by anything, but
Whatsapp has completely filled that space. Everyone I know (twenty something
graduates in the UK) uses it. That kind of market penetration is hard to
match, even with a brand like Blackberry.

~~~
jeffasinger
I think the market is somewhat different in the US. My impression is that
Whatsapp has a much smaller market penetration. I downloaded it to talk to one
friend, only one other person in my 200+ contact phonebook had it.

------
stanleydrew
"Today, BlackBerry also announced BBM Channels, a new social engagement
platform within BBM that will allow customers to connect with the businesses,
brands, celebrities and groups they are passionate about."

Why? Does anyone actually want to connect with, e.g. Target, over BBM? Isn't
BBM useful for chatting with friends? Why would they poison it by allowing
"brands" onto the platform?

~~~
untog
You could say the same about Twitter, but Target has over 553k followers.

~~~
stanleydrew
Except that Twitter is a completely different use-case. I tweet when I want
the world to hear something. I send a BBM message when I want one or two of my
friends to hear something.

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simplysaru
This is going to make it easy for the blackberry users to switch to android/
iOS. The just have to buy their non blackberry device of choice, get used to
it with out loosing their friends and fellow BBM users. As simple as that.
Keyboard and BBM was a major limiting factor to a hardcore BB fan. Now I think
they can switch with a bit more of ease :)

~~~
cdmckay
I don't think BBM has the same influence of BB users that once did thanks to
WhatsApp and other cross-platform messengers. I think at this point it's to
BB's advantage to make it easier for their users to communicate with non-BB
phones via BBM.

~~~
purephase
And, I think this is why they've done it. If it had been year or two ago it
would have been in the same space as WhatsApp et. al. Now, it simply provides
a way for BB users to talk with their non-BB counterparts through a preferred
app and if it gets a few users back into BB world, then great.

------
budde
I can't help but think that they should've done this 2 years ago. While it's
true that this could have accelerated the exodus of users from BB to
iOS/Android, I think a cross-platform, successful BBM would've been an
invaluable beachhead in the mobile environment for RIM as their device
marketshare plummeted. BBM could have then served as means of keeping users
who gave up their BlackBerries in the BB ecosystem and helped to attract these
users back to the BB platform when their latest, more modern devices were
released.

At this point, at least among young people, I feel most former BBM users may
have simply moved on and the prospect of using BBM on their new devices may
just not be an interesting one anymore. Perhaps I'm wrong about this, though.
Regardless, I think it's a good choice on RIM's part to launch a multiplatform
BBM, I just feel like it would've been much more valuable to have done it a
lot sooner.

------
ChrisArchitect
just call it what it is, another instant messaging network, that does nothing
but simply use the net and your data to send messages under guise of a crpytic
ridiculous PIN number/account. Can't we just stick to contact lists of
people's names and emails and IM that way..none of these 'numbers' (phone, pin
etc).

Meanwhile MS/outlook.com announces interoperability with gTalk...aka XMPP....
and the open net pushes forward.

~~~
stanleydrew
This is an interesting opinion. Are you saying that you don't want to have
more than a name and an email address for a contact and just have all
communication apps use the email address as the identifier?

I had thought this too at one point until I realized that having more than one
identifier implicitly allows me to segment my communications in an easy way.
For instance, I can give my email address to Macy's instead of my phone
number, and I know I'll only get asynchronous textual information from them.
But I can give my phone number to someone at a bar, and know that I am
implicitly allowing them to interrupt me with a call or text message.

So I get a communications permissions system for free when I have more than
one identifier. But clearly it's not efficient to have 100 different
identifiers, one for each network. So we need to settle somewhere in the
middle I think.

~~~
ChrisArchitect
I meant keeping our contact lists basic and of real information like names and
an email (email being a good base block for net stuff/identification/comms
because the domain etc) instead of 10 other accounts to keep track of for all
our contact list/address book entries.

On the 'communications permissions system' tip, yeah, ok, useful to direct
certain things via different networks, but instead of numbers and cryptic
pins, keep it to names.... Address Book entry: Name & facebook: ChrisArchitect
email, IM: ...@....com (translates to a searchable contact on other nets like
twitter too)

------
orangethirty
I think BB will pull a SEGA.

~~~
LandoCalrissian
That's sort of what it looks like at this point. They have missed the boat so
many times now I really don't see any other way for them to hold onto
something.

~~~
Apocryphon
If you can't pull a Nintendo, there's no shame in going SEGA.

~~~
orangethirty
What does pulling a Nintendo mean?

~~~
TheCraiggers
I was wondering the same. I've always put Nintendo and Apple in the same
category.

Likes to release a bunch of proprietary hardware. Can't keep the same
goddamned power/video connector from one console to the next. Likes their
walled garden. Likes making everything perhaps a bit too easy to the point of
taking away options. Tries going for the "casual / mainstream" market,
forgoing everyone else.

I'm sure there are plenty of reasons to not group them, but I like my fantasy.

~~~
Apocryphon
Blue Ocean Strategy, which is interesting why you brought up Apple. Nintendo
came out of nowhere with the Wii and the DS. Apple, similarly, is all about
innovation.

------
freshrap6
I remember a few years back all my friends had Blackberries and we could all
sit in a room and have full conversations over bbm, excluding those without
blackberries. Now we all are split over Android and iOS but we all use
whatsapp and groupme.

BBM was great for instant messaging back in the day, but it's been out of the
game for too long now.

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SnowLprd
"Why are we doing this now? It's a statement of confidence."

Not desperation, but confidence. Riiiiiight.

Am I the only one who's not buying this?

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windexh8er
BBM is still fundamentally flawed by the fact that Rim controls it. Do I trust
Rim? Not inherently. And with the recent post by Moxie regarding messaging
interception I don't understand why anyone would favor giving a large
corporation a single point of inspection that will, likely, not be understood
if it's users are sharing I the clear or not. All of these apps blow from that
perspective which is why I use none of them.

~~~
jagermo
yes, but that is the problem with all (popular) messengers. Just look at the
flaws of WhatsApp. Or, do you trust Google, Microsoft (Skype) or Apple?

------
hydralist
What's that? Whatsapp?

~~~
BaconJuice
No its BBM, it's a messaging system created by BlackBerry that came pre-
installed on their devices.

~~~
EricMuller22
What's BlackBerry?

