After months (years for some) BBM for Android and iOS is now official. It features NFC contact sharing, emoticons, group chats and all the other features you would expect from Blackberry rolled up into a nice BB10 styled package. With the ever shrinking population of Blackberry users what real reason is there to use BBM? Especially when they are not the only cross-platform messenger in the game.
Let’s rewind the clocks a few years back. Back when Blackberry ruled the smartphone world. There were rumors back then that the instant messaging service would open to other platforms but didn’t happen. Whether the leadership at the time was too arrogant to make the change or the technology wasn’t in place yet. The idea of BBM for Android & iOS would have been a fantastic release in 2010 when Blackberry still had a substantial marketshare. Many Android and iOS users were Blackberry users once upon a time and would have loved to have had the feature on their new homes.
Blackberry is clawing and scratching for a place in the smartphone world. But in a world ran by Android and iOS there just doesn’t seem to be a place for it. There is already an overwhelming number of cross-platform Instant Messaging clients fighting for the #1 spot like: WhatsApp, Kik, & most recently Google Hangouts.
The popular messaging service, WhatsApp, is only 4-years old and already has over 300 million users. What does BBM have to offer to compete?
The question is: what will maker users gravitate to BBM over the others when everyone already has their favorites. Between BBM and the competition, there are no real distinctions of features. Everyone offers real-time & secure chatting, file transfers, and more. So what is the real attraction: the BlackBerry legacy? Or the high-level encryption? Whatever the main attraction is, it may require more to stand out.
Who knows? We could be wrong and BBM becomes a huge hit for BlackBerry. Although I am hoping so, the masses appeared to have moved on to one of the many other messaging services on the market. Have you done so as well or are still clinging on? Let us know in the comments.
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