The original BlackBerry Messenger service was a feature that made the Canadian firms smartphone very popular with users around the world. The fast and secure mode of communication was something other feature phones lacked at the time. Today’s smartphones running on Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android do have messaging system similar to BBM that are third party apps and have some people wondering if the recent announcement that BlackBerry Messenger will be coming to the rival platforms will have any traction with users. BlackBerry founder, Mike Lazaridis, has faith in the product and believes that it will be accepted on the iOS and Android platforms.
Lazaridis spoke at the Bloomberg Canada Economic Summit in Toronto and said, “BBM is by far the most compelling wireless experience and wireless social-networking environment.” Lazaridis also gave his approval of his successors by saying, “What he’s [BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins] doing now is really speaking to the confidence he has in the platform, the products. Not only is BlackBerry back in a big way with BB10, he has also shown that he can expand that vision to other platforms.”
The opinion about BBM’s availability on rival platforms is mixed. The free service that sixty million BlackBerry customers use around the world is something that many believe was eventually going to have to move to other platforms. However, opponents of the move think that BlackBerry will not stay in control any more when they give other platforms access to BBM. For nor the Canadian firm has not mentioned how its expects to make any money from the move but with BBM channels now a reality their is a good chance advertisers will be attracted to the Waterloo firms platform.
BlackBerry’s position as top smartphone company was taken over by competitors like Apple, Samsung and Google. The Canadian firm was left in the dust as these firms took up a bigger share of the market. The company survived the initial onslaught and has been engineering a comeback for some time. The launch of the BB10 platform was the first step and the introduction of the BBM service to other platforms seems to be part of the plan. It will have to go up against rivals like WhatsApp, iMessenger, Facebook Messenger, Google+ in the cross-platform messengers sector.
The current leader is WhatsApp with 200 million active users and is followed by iMessenger and its 140 million users. The battle will be tough but BBM fans should not have any issues explaining the merits of their chosen messaging service and its unique features like BBM Group. The results of the move are yet to be seen and some predict that when users see BBM they will consider BB10 phones as a valid choice for a new purchase. While others claim that by giving away the best feature of BlackBerry, the company is making it easier for people to jump ship to rival smartphones.
Source: TechVibes
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