The key is wait for it. Blackberry recently released their famous BBM instant messaging service on iPhone and Android platforms earlier last week and was greeted by over 10 million user downloads within the first 24 hours of release. I remember back in 2010 in my first years of high school when absolutely everyone who was anyone had a BBM pin. It was the coolest thing. Blackberry’s recent fall from stardom as the consumers mobile platform of choice had teenagers everywhere switching to the iPhone circa 2012 and BBM became relatively obsolete. After-all, with messaging apps if no one you know is on them, then why bother? I was somewhat hesitant to open up my relationship with BBM which had ended on bad terms, but an automated email from a friend who used the app and had Blackberry “invite” me caused me to toss a download their way (it’s free).

BBM recently launched its well-recognized instant messaging app on Apple operating systems amongst others

I opened the familiar icon up and was greeted with a place to enter my email, and a message explaining how “sorry” the company was that “due to excessive demand” I was required to register and wait to get on. What the hell. The first thing I thought was how angry that made me. Who does Blackberry think they are? They are regarded widely as a sinking ship, as close to bankruptcy as you can get, I do them the FAVOUR of downloading their last attempt of salvaging something, anything, from the franchise, and this is how they repay me? Apparently their servers were not designed to manage that many people at one time on the platform, which initially calmed my rage. Initially. Then I realized how stupid it was to release an app without the server capacity to manage a significant amount of demand. What’s more, the app is said to not even support iPad interfaces because BBM latches onto a mobile number upon operation. This screams poor business to me. Make an app the right way, even if it takes longer (did thy learn nothing from the *cough* “Playbook”. I wait in line for food, I wait in line for laundry, I wait in line for tickets. I don’t wait in line to use your app. This relationship was tough to go back to, I’ll admit. And like someone who, in their inebriated capacity returns to the comfort of a previous relationship with the hopes of rekindling the magic, it didn’t turn out and I regret it immediately.