BlackBerry trying to get BBM preloaded on some Android phones
The company doesn't believe that users will now retain their BBM service, yet shift to other smartphone platforms.
In a second piece of good news for BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) fans, it seems like BlackBerry is in active talks with many smartphone manufacturers to see if BBM can be preloaded on their Android smartphones. This news follows a day after it was reported that BBM for Android and iOS would be made available to users towards the end of this month.
In a conversation with CNET, BlackBerry Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear revealed this information. “There is interest from other handset makers.” Incidentally, Tear did neither confirm nor deny the reports about the possible BBM release date.
BlackBerry is making its most popular service cross platform in an attempt to entice users on other platforms to start thinking about BlackBerry products again. But, the company does not believe that it runs the risk of seeing many of its users shifting to other smartphone platforms, while retaining their BBM service. “We don’t feel like that is a risk,” Tear said. “Obviously, if we did, we might have acted differently.”
“BBM is a strong platform that provides a different way of communicating,” Tear added. The company strongly believes that with BB10 now out there, they have a strong enough offering and ecosystem to entice users over from other smartphone platforms. At the moment, BBM has 60 million active users, and the company claims 70% are using it daily. Just for a numbers’ comparison, Whatsapp has 200 million users.
Source: Cnet