Industry watchers and fans alike rejoiced when Blackberry announced that its popular messaging app would be making its way to iOS 7 and Android. Though the release was scheduled for June 27th, Blackberry still awaits response from Google Play and Apple App Store. Everything looked great till a statement by the company labeled this information as ‘inaccurate’.
When Blackberry announced that its messaging app was going to be a part of iOS and Android, the tech world saw this as the company’s attempt to popularize its services using other platforms. It did, nonetheless, gathered positive feedback from the crowds. A source later quoted Blackberry’s plans to release Blackberry Messenger on the iPhone and Android devices on June 27th, while the fans no less than starved for news on developments. The mobile manufacturer, however, took a sharp U turn and announced this information to be false in the start of this month.
As Android and iOS users are still processing the sudden change of plans on the part of Blackberry, the situation continues to look cloudy. Earlier last month when T-Mobile tweeted the release date of Blackberry Messenger on Android and iOS, one could barely think of information coming from this source as inaccurate. The tweet included a picture of a Blackberry Messenger conversation in full swing on a Samsung smartphone running Android. The tweet was removed as a statement from Blackberry made way to the public front.
In the official statement by the company, Blackberry acknowledges that it had announced that Android and iOS users will be able to download the BBM app come summer. The release date, however, had not been announced by Blackberry and was false news. This brings us back to T-Mobile US’s tweet that has assured iOS and Android smartphone users of this development just a few weeks ago.
If T-Mobile UK was not sure of the accuracy of the information, why would it be posting it on a public platform? A simple explanation is that T-Mobile had simply been mistaken about the date too. June 27th might be the official release date but T-Mobile revealing it right now through Twitter might not have been the company’s idea of a perfect launch.
CEO Thorsten Hiens, did confirm in his statement last month that Blackberry was going to expand to iOS and Android but remained tight-lipped about the official release date. He also claimed that BBM was ready to move ahead independently. Kritian Rear, the Chief Operating Officer at Blackberry told that the company is working with other mobile manufacturers in the market to figure out a way to produce devices with built-in BBM app. Though he did not mention any names, he did confidently state that other mobile makers were showing interest in this idea.
The Blackberry Messenger app coming to Androids and iPhone is one of the biggest examples of tech companies looking to port their apps to other platforms in an effort to stay in the competition.
Blackberry’s plan to push Blackberry Messenger through other mobile platforms has been received very well by techies but there is a good chance of it backfiring as well. While a great move on the part of Blackberry, BBM on iPhone and Android might persuade Blackberry users to move from BB devices to others in the market.
Author Information:
Jessica is a writer for Mobistealth and likes to blog about news, developments and trends in the tech world. Her articles make her passion for technology obvious. She can be reached at @jcarol429.