bbm on ios and android, what use blackberry?

BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging application, known by the acronym BBM has always been one of the exclusive features that are only available on a BlackBerry smartphone.

However, the exclusivity will disappear as soon as the BlackBerry BBM app released for iOS and Android in mid-2013 through the app stores of each platform.

This surprising move is called BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins as a "statement of confidence" company. BlackBerry hopes to expand the customer base fuel and monetize the application so it is reached.

Although able to make the fuel becomes more relevant in the midst of the increasing popularity of cross-platform instant messaging application, the decision also has the potential to be a boomerang for BlackBerry handsets.

Larry Magid of Forbes found BlackBerry users who use such devices to chat through BBM can later move freely to the iPhone or Android phones because no longer bound by the exclusivity of fuel.

This topic is a warm conversation among consumers BlackBerry, including in Indonesia. A thread that discusses the possibility of the above was even chosen to be one of the "hot thread" in an online community forum Kaskus.

Because popular in Indonesia, BlackBerry handsets used by many users from all walks of life. BlackBerry smartphones are often seen in the hand, with an iPhone or Android smartphone, because their owners can not be separated from BBM contacts that are already a lot and can only be accessed from the BlackBerry device.

Now, with the opening of the door for BBM on iOS and Android, what is the reason to keep using BlackBerry phones?

Although may seem can cause blunders, making the BlackBerry is actually intended precisely to prevent BlackBerry users to switch to another heart.

The hope, the presence of fuel in the iPhone and Android could boost the popularity of chat services while providing a wider network of contacts for BBM on BlackBerry users.

Why now?

Then why it is not done time and time again? Jim Dawson, chief analyst at Ovum telecommunications research institute, said that BlackBerry has long planned to release BBM to Android and iOS. It only became a reality after triggered by a decline in the BlackBerry subscriber base.

Until the second quarter of last year, the number of BlackBerry subscribers continuously recorded an increase. But since then, this trend was reversed: the number of BlackBerry subscribers gradually down from a peak of 80 million.

"Many BlackBerry users are switching to another platform and therefore leave the fuel.'s Application value to be reduced," Dawson said, as quoted by The Verge. "If you wait much longer, might fuel really has no meaning. They (BlackBerry) want to do it while there is still time to take advantage of BBM user base."

BlackBerry claims there are currently 60 million BBM users worldwide. More than 51 million people use BBM on average 90 minutes per day. Overall, every day, there are 10 billion messages sent and received fuel customers. BlackBerry claims this number twice as many of the messages sent and received another instant messaging application.

By also present in the iPhone and Android, the fuel will be competing directly with other instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Line, Kakao Talk, or WeChat who first grabbed the users on both platforms. Whatsapp, for example, already has 200 million users globally.

According to the explanation in the blog BlackBerry, BBM for iPhone and Android will initially only have basic functions such as multi-chat and create a group of up to 30 contacts with the BlackBerry calendar sharing, photos, and files. Voice and video chat support plan will be added to the iOS and Android versions of the fuel at the end of this year.