
BBM for Android and iPhone Update - noarchy
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2013/09/bbm-for-android-iphone-launch-update/
======
eddieroger
> Our teams continue to work around the clock to bring BBM to Android and
> iPhone, but only when it’s ready and we know it will live up to your
> expectations of BBM.

No rush, guys. The good news is it already lives up to my current expectation
of BlackBerry - late to the game.

~~~
officemonkey
Well, they better hurry and get this out before they go bankrupt.

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dotmanish
I'm speculating another issue at hand (not that this one caused issues for BBM
itself) that a substantial number of users downloaded fake BBM apps that were
made to look like from "BBM Inc" or "BlackBerry Inc" (BB itself is registered
in Google Play store as "BlackBerry Limited").

These apps had full access permissions to Phone Logs, SD Card, and Network
Communications. Users were forced to provide a rating for the apps before the
app "allowed" them to login and then crashed.

A related article here: [http://trak.in/tags/business/2013/09/21/fake-bbm-
apps-fools-...](http://trak.in/tags/business/2013/09/21/fake-bbm-apps-fools-
thousands-android-users/)

~~~
AJ007
The Google Play store has significant trademark issues. It reminds me of all
the years fake iPhone chargers were being sold as by "Apple" on Amazon.

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aaronbrethorst

        ...more than 1.1 million active users in the
        first 8 hours without even launching the
        official Android app – is incredible.
    
        Consequently, this unreleased version caused
        issues, which we have attempted to address
        throughout the day.
    

"[C]onsequently" is an odd word to use here.

1.1 million unexpected users overwhelmed the BBM service? I would've expected
BBM, given its enterprise-ready status, to be more than capable of handling
that kind of extra load.

So, what's the real story? Is it that BBM simply isn't capable of handling
bursty load?

~~~
ovoxo
Not sure why you think there's more to the story. It's extremely common for
"unreleased" versions of various apps/services to have bottlenecks that the
production-ready versions would not. That's typically why they're
"unreleased".

~~~
macspoofing
Maybe because Blackberry just halted a worldwide rollout of their Android AND
iPhone BBM product without saying why?

If this isn't a service-overload issue, I'm having a hard time imagining what
kind of problems this unreleased Android version could have caused.

~~~
ovoxo
They themselves said _"..this unreleased version caused issues"_. That could
be referring to anything - including service-overload issues but I don't know
why that would be that surprising.

This is exactly why companies like to have tight control of the roll-out of
new products. They want to find these types of bottle-necks and glitches in
rather controlled environments.

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tuananh
2 years ago, 8 out of 10 ungrads in my college i saw use BB or at least own a
BB (along with other phone). these days? probably less than 1 out of 10.

People already settled down with other messaging apps I guess. At least, it's
the situation here in THailand.

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jevinskie
Ouch, I feel for these guys. A false start, unauthorized launch right when BB
announces the bad news. I'm sure they have had a very long week!

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michaelmartin
Surely there was a better way to handle this? 1.1 million users in 8 hours on
an un-official version? That's brilliant enthusiasm, which Blackberry don't
often get these days. Simply shutting that down and telling them to register
for some email updates is a bit of a dampener.

Couldn't they have become some massive trial group etc.? A giant set of early
adopters to keep rolling out improved versions too (All with a big "alpha"
caveat if that's what it takes), that can get people not yet in the group
excited.

I think the little bit of hype and excitement from interested users is just
the sort of thing BlackBerry needs, and putting a plug on that is crazy.

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devx
BBM is at a dead end. The company behind it is getting bankrupt, and will soon
probably try to sell its assets anyway (if they can), which means the survival
of BBM will be on the hands of whoever buys it.

Since Google failed to buy Whatsapp, it might be a good idea for them to buy
BBM. They should at least get some pretty significant user base in both North
American countries, and in some emerging ones. They'll have to kill the
branding, though, as they fold it into Hangouts, but they could probably do
that slowly, to get people through a smooth transition, and in the meantime
just make Hangouts and BBM interoperable.

~~~
untog
I don't think Google needs it. Once they finally get around to integrating
Hangouts with SMS, they'll have a pretty competitive platform.

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taspeotis
I suspect their servers are overwhelmed. They're probably not used to managing
the traffic that comes from a successful smartphone platform.

~~~
officemonkey
I doubt this is a tech issue, I think this is a fiduciary issue. Leadership is
trying to figure out how to extract the most money from this thing in a
rapidly changing landscape.

Mark my words, the official BBM software, when released, will not be free.

~~~
noarchy
Those who were able to download the app before the rollout was paused, are
still able to use it. The app is fully-functioning[1], and they didn't pay for
it. Looks like this initial offering of the app is indeed free.

1\. It is missing some features that the BB10 version has. Those will
apparently be appearing within a few months. Maybe _that_ will require money
to use.

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pinaceae
the walking dead in action - no good engineer, developer, whatever is still
with BB. of course they all left already. left behind is the B and C league,
stuck in their jobs for various reasons, incl. Mr. Heins, the accidental CEO.

