Development of BBM to other phones?
Apr 3rd, 2011 by crystalwong
As i mentioned a few posts ago, I was looking into potentially getting a new phone. Now, I mentioned that I had a slight interest in the BlackBerry, but I realized that this was only because of the BBM application. While I know that there are other similar applications, such as WhatsApp, GoogleTalk, are available, they just don’t seem as similar, from my point of view. From what I’ve researched and heard from people, the internet browsing experience is much more enjoyable on most other smartphones, and you are able to obtain many more free applications and games on other smartphones as well. Anyway, when I heard that RIM was thinking of developing BBM to work on other platforms, I became interested and immediately came home to look it up.
In this article here, it is mentioned that RIM has indeed decided to go ahead with this idea. Now, you may think.. the whole point of bbm is that it’s called BlackBerry Messenger! Exclusively for the BlackBerry! Why would they want to expand to other androids? Once iPhone developed WhatsApp, they allowed other smartphones to also make use of this app and so, RIM simply wants to take back their market domination in this aspect. Unlike the WhatsApp application however, BBM on other phones will not be the same as if you had it on a BlackBerry. It will only be a messaging tool. Pictures? Nope. Music? Nope. Files? Nope.
vs.
Enough said.
In my opinion, I don’t see the big positive in this move. From a marketing aspect, I would liken what they’re doing to accelerate their rate of diffusion through trialibility. If other people like BBM enough on their phones even in its limited version , maybe they’ll decide to make the switch over to a BlackBerry. Conversely, it is also possible that people will resort to other messaging methods if they do want to send pictures and files. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with this new development. Personally… I’ve started to move away from wanting to get a BlackBerry, and I guess if this goes through, it will make it more convenient for me personally! I’ll just have to be patient.