BlackBerry used its BlackBerry Live conference last month to make several announcements, including the BlackBerry Q5 and its new BBM Channels. One of the biggest and most surprising pieces of news to come from the show, though, was the announcement that BlackBerry Messenger will officially launch on Android and iOS devices this summer. Now it appears that BlackBerry is working to take things one step further by preloading its BBM service onto select devices.
BlackBerry COO Kristian Tear has told CNET that his company is currently in talks with other hardware manufacturers about preloading BBM onto their handsets. Tear declined to name names, saying only that "there is interest from other handset makers" about a preloaded BBM app. The exec went on to say that BlackBerry isn't concerned about the availability of BBM on other platforms causing users to leave or stay away from BlackBerry 10, explaining that the company feels that BBM "is a strong platform" that could get users interested enough in BlackBerry 10 to switch OSes.
Rumors of BBM coming to other platforms have been circulating for quite a while, and now it won't be long before the rumors become reality and users on both Android and iOS are able to begin using the popular messaging service. Some folks feel that it's strange for BlackBerry to give one of the strongest pieces of its platform away to its competition, but the company doesn't see the move as a risk. Whether or not BBM is enough to get Android and iOS users to switch to BlackBerry 10 remains to be seen, but getting a taste of BlackBerry's platform through the BBM app could at least get BB10 on the minds of users that download it. Are you looking forward to the arrival of BBM on Android and iOS? Do you think that the app could help convince you to switch to BlackBerry 10?
Via CNET
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