This sure has to be unbelievable. As our friend Nikhil puts it on twitter just correctly – Has April Fools Day come early? For those new to the term BBM, it stands for Blackberry Messenger and its a craze! Back home in India, I am used to seeing people grabbing a Blackberry just to keep up with their friends, family and colleagues on BBM. In fact my friend who traveled to UK for higher education recently, took an iPhone 4 and a few weeks later grabbed a Blackberry as well. Just to keep up with his friends on BBM.
Run a little search on BBM on iPhone/Android and you will see a whole lot of people asking on online forums for hacks. So the latest rumor where BGR (known to be an expert with Blackberry leaks) claims that RIM (Research In Motion), the makers of Blackberry are gearing up to loosen their tight control over BBM and taking it to other platforms like iOS and Android, is sure a shocker. BBM is one of the most prominent reasons for people to stick to Blackberry, which has been left behind in the smartphone race after the arrival of the iPhone in 2007 and followup by the Android lately.
So why would RIM bring BBM to other platforms? BGR perhaps gets it right. The competition from WhatsApp, Nimbuzz and other open messengers has become an issue. They are letting people communicate irrespective of the platform and thats not good for Blackberry. A few open questions remain, as to the cost of the app. Free, one time cost? or subscription? Bringing the BBM on other platforms will also do Blackberry some harm, would that be more than these competitive messengers like WhatsApp? Time would tell!
