[dc9super80]

true. and the whole "pin" idea is sooo Blackberry. maybe this will increase their curiosity as to how Blackberry's work, which is always a good thing.

I have heard people say the pin thing is inconvenient.

[jackdunhill]

Hopefully they have some ads with in BBM on the other platofrms thats the only way I can see it making sense

[Gnomesane]

Great, smart move imho. Branding it with the BB logo everytime it launches. Adding screenshare, voice, the works. Brilliant.

The app is free but I bet they're looking at value added services down the road that can be leveraged through BBM.

Now they just have to update Bridge for multiplatform tablets. That would be a real game changer.

[Kardinal_D]

I think it should be limited to say chat and video! For the full experience buy a BB

[Vithulan L Nathan]

I have heard people say the pin thing is inconvenient.

well i've been a blackberry user for almost 5 years now. and i've used bbm for almost 3 years. I never found the pin to be inconvenient. It was much better than getting someone's phone number, or communicating with someone without actually giving them my phone number. Also with the introduction of Barcode scanning and NFC tag, it just became a whole alot easier. I think the idea of using PINS make the whole experience more secure.

[lyles]

Pin was simply an extremely popular way to converse/get new friends in college. Best was when they came out with the QR code way of adding people, I racked up so many numbers at the bar that first week, BBM was pretty much the best wingman ever those first few weeks.

Not sure how they'll decide to have people add each other going forward but I personally loved the pin.

[crazy mazy]

to the people that say this will be bad for BB10 sales are wrong! If your going to buy a BB10 smart phone your going to buy one, if you don't have a BB10 you decided not to buy one, and its not because BBM is available on your platform. My take is that this will help word of mouth sales, for Z10 and Q10. I can't imagine BB would be so stupid to do this is it was going to discourage people from buying Z10, Q10, Q5 or R10 Etc.

[bobshine]

I think they should have waited to get in more BB10 sales before making this move! One less reason people have to go for BB

Posted via CB10

Actually it's the opposite. People don't leave iphone to go to BlackBerry to use BBM cause none of their friends are on BBM anymore! So its a smart move cause BlackBerry will be the first major smartphone maker to get it cross platform. It will expand their reach.


It's actually one more reason to switch to BlackBerry ! Imagine the iphone user with hundreds of BBM contacts, he or she will switch to BlackBerry much more
easily.

Posted via CB10

[greyw0lf01]

I�ve got mixed feelings around BBM going cross platform. For starters, below is a great article on why Apple gets all the good apps which is worth reading. I don�t think BBM is going to convince iOS users to switch over, why would you when everything comes to you. Same thing more or less for Android.

This move is strange. I understand wanting to grow the BBM base but how do you make money. If you charge, people flee, throw a bunch of ads and people flee.

What�s the value proposition for BBRY now other than being different (which Apple owns)? BBM will be cross platform and the 2 giants in the mobile industry Samsung & Apple have FIPS certification.

Walt Mossberg: How Apple Gets All the Good Apps - Walt Mossberg - Personal Technology - AllThingsD

[relapse09]

Everyone already moved away from BBM, so it is no longer getting sales for BlackBerry. The devices themselves are getting the sales. Smart move.

Posted via CB10

[sirxdaniel]

Epic. I thought they should have done this earlier.

No need for skype or whatsapp now, and I can "facetime" my parents on their iOS devices at home with my Z10

well bbm video chat won't be available on ios or android phones once it comes out...they're going to add these features later for them after it comes out..

Posted via CB10

[jay2s]

Wrong move BlackBerry... I'm disappointed

Posted via CB10

[Prince Radebe]

The only reason why WhatsApp and all the other cross-platform messengers became famous is BBM being exclusive. Now that it is becoming a cross platform messenger... there's really no need for the others

Posted via CB10

[lawguyman]

This is amazing.

Now millions of iOS and Android users will get to experience what BlackBerry means when it says "summer."

We have been keeping that to ourselves for far too long.

Posted via CB10

[Gnomesane]

Also, think about how BB users will tell their iOS and Android friends to add the app to contact them. And when support for channels and screenshare is eventually added, that will be great marketing for Blackberry. Will help to eliminate the assumption that they are 'dead'. I think it's a great long term move to put it on other platforms.

[UA1VM]

Great, now we can face time with those Apple hippies

[Tre Lawrence]

This is amazing.

Now millions of iOS and Android users will get to experience what BlackBerry means when it says "summer."

We have been keeping that to ourselves for far too long.

Posted via CB10

Did they specify what country's summer they are using? LOL.

All those wondering whether this will negatively impact sales, what if Thor and co are being pragmatic for the future? A future of software and services?

[agentfat2004]

I see this as a great move by Blackberry. Even if BBM was holding some people onto the platform that hold would only last for so long,. For me owning Skype on the Z10 was so important because many of my friends were moving away from the platform, now with this announcement Skype has been rendered mute(i love skype but BBM is in a class by itself). And for the detractors understand they are playing the long game. Remember Blackberry is also an enterprise company, and if more than anything they want to control the mobile space inside the enterprise. With the new version of BES, can you image the benefits. You add an BB/IOS/Android device under management on BES and it automatically ads people in your organization as BBM contacts. Maybe i misunderstand BBM Channels, but to me it feels like a swipe at twitter. They may not get the kind of userbase as twitter just yet but imagine the possibilities. As for consumer facing, they may loose a few customers but man oh man now my bbm chat will be full of contacts from everywhere. Big up blackberry

[lawguyman]

Did they specify what country's summer they are using? LOL.

Is it "scheduled"? "promised"? what year?

Posted via CB10

[jason18]

Yesss. I can't wait for everyone to see how amazing bbm is and be able to bbm video my Iphone friends that won't switch

Posted via CB10

[lyles]

Too many people are looking at this from a near term view. This is long term thinking that, to me, suggest BB isn't looking only at maintaining the number 3 spot.

This signals to me a shot across the bow of the big boys. I've been very cautiously optimistic about my long term view of BB maintaining that third spot but this surprised the hell out of me today in a very good way. It tells me they really understand the new market and are ready to navigate through it on an impressive level. If the next phone release is fully loaded with specs and screen size coupled with good earnings reports on the Q10/Z10, then the big two will officially be watching their backs.

I'm no fanboy either, there's been a lot of things wrong with BB and they need to start launching phones with hype, fanfare, and quicker delivery and the app ecosystem badly needs to get on the level of android/itunes, but the future landscape and outlook looks totally different with this move being official.

Could it backfire and fail? Of course it could. I think it's the only play though if you really want to enter back into the game with the big 2.

[lTatis]

What the what.

Well at least I can communicate with my ex BlackBerry user friends again.

Posted via CB10

Exactly what I thought, coming back tk blackberry wasn't for BBM it was for the amazing gestures but now being able to ditch kik ect for BBM is just on point

Posted via CB10

[LewLew23]

The only reason why WhatsApp and all the other cross-platform messengers became famous is BBM being exclusive. Now that it is becoming a cross platform messenger... there's really no need for the others

Posted via CB10

I agree, and I think this is the point a lot of people are missing. The only reason I downloaded Whatsapp was for my friends who didn't have BBM. Now, I can delete Whatsapp. I still believe BBM is far superior to it.

[VR6]

BBM will need to add other things like push-to-talk, record short voice note, doodle just to kill off the smaller messaging apps but Whatsapp is gonna be hard to tackle.

[1251251]

smart move, now this planet will using bbm, whatsapp is dead lol

Posted via CB10