 "Did BlackBerry just give away its only ace?")
This past week, BlackBerry announced that it was giving away possibly the only Ace it had left: BBM was going cross platform.
With the world of mobile messaging apps booming with the likes of WhatsApp, which claims it has 200 million active users, China’s WeChat, which claims 190 million and even Kik, which recently hit 50 million users, the smartphone users of the world are moving away from BBM.
BlackBerry seems to recognize this and, rather than cede the messaging app world to the likes of WhatsApp, the company is piggybacking off the market share success of iOS and Android.
Is this a smart move for the flailing company? Possibly. But it comes with one big risk – BBM remains one of the central, most enticing things about owning a BlackBerry. So why would consumers buy a BlackBerry device if they can now get BBM independently?
Let’s break this down into the positives and negatives.
The Good
BBM is still very much a part of the BlackBerry family. As more users download BBM, regardless of the device, the more users get exposed to the Blackberry brand.
Secondly, Android and iOS users will only have access to BBM’s chat function, at least initially. That means the other key features of BBM – video calls, screen sharing and other options – are potentially big moneymakers, if BlackBerry grabs the opportunity to charge for them.
Even at $0.99 for additional features, BlackBerry could see the money rolling in, as BBM’s 60 million monthly active users reportedly send 10 billion messages a day to one another. Of course, this could backfire if users decide that they can just as easily switch to a multitude of other apps that offer the same features, and simply skip BBM altogether.
Which brings us to..
The Bad
By making BBM available across platforms, BlackBerry is essentially giving its competitors a branded tool that can be used on their platforms for free. For a company that expects to report a second-quarter loss of between $950 million to $995 million, this is a risky move indeed.
By allowing Apple and Samsung to offer BBM, BlackBerry is leaving itself with only one great feature – its physical keyboards.
Ultimately however, it’s not the service that users are loyal to. An instant messaging service, no matter how great, is useful if none of the people you want to talk to are on it. At the end of the day then, it just comes down to where most of your friends are.
Chances are that a lot of users won’t think of this as a choice – they will simply install both Whatsapp and BBM, plus Twitter, Skype, Facebook Messenger and a gamut of other services, seamlessly switching between them all.
As long as BBM is involved in the conversation then, does it really need to dominate it?
With the world of mobile messaging apps booming with the likes of WhatsApp, which claims it has 200 million active users, China’s WeChat, which claims 190 million and even Kik, which recently hit 50 million users, the smartphone users of the world are moving away from BBM.
ALSO READ: BBM for Android, iOS on pause mode
BlackBerry seems to recognize this and, rather than cede the messaging app world to the likes of WhatsApp, the company is piggybacking off the market share success of iOS and Android.
Is this a smart move for the flailing company? Possibly. But it comes with one big risk – BBM remains one of the central, most enticing things about owning a BlackBerry. So why would consumers buy a BlackBerry device if they can now get BBM independently?
Let’s break this down into the positives and negatives.
The Good
BBM is still very much a part of the BlackBerry family. As more users download BBM, regardless of the device, the more users get exposed to the Blackberry brand.
Secondly, Android and iOS users will only have access to BBM’s chat function, at least initially. That means the other key features of BBM – video calls, screen sharing and other options – are potentially big moneymakers, if BlackBerry grabs the opportunity to charge for them.
Even at $0.99 for additional features, BlackBerry could see the money rolling in, as BBM’s 60 million monthly active users reportedly send 10 billion messages a day to one another. Of course, this could backfire if users decide that they can just as easily switch to a multitude of other apps that offer the same features, and simply skip BBM altogether.
Which brings us to..
The Bad
By making BBM available across platforms, BlackBerry is essentially giving its competitors a branded tool that can be used on their platforms for free. For a company that expects to report a second-quarter loss of between $950 million to $995 million, this is a risky move indeed.
By allowing Apple and Samsung to offer BBM, BlackBerry is leaving itself with only one great feature – its physical keyboards.
Ultimately however, it’s not the service that users are loyal to. An instant messaging service, no matter how great, is useful if none of the people you want to talk to are on it. At the end of the day then, it just comes down to where most of your friends are.
Chances are that a lot of users won’t think of this as a choice – they will simply install both Whatsapp and BBM, plus Twitter, Skype, Facebook Messenger and a gamut of other services, seamlessly switching between them all.
As long as BBM is involved in the conversation then, does it really need to dominate it?