Just read this in the Globe and mail BlackBerry to turn BBM secure-messaging system into subscription service
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Just read this in the Globe and mail BlackBerry to turn BBM secure-messaging system into subscription service
BBM Enterprise (protected) has always been a subscription service.
It will be available to developers now as a CPaaS. That's actually very cool. I'm excited about this because I happened to have been studying this space recently and there is a lot of demand for this in banking and other similar industries.
The voice and video parts are especially interesting for customer service applications.
Here is the link:
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/tec...service=mobile
Even if we had to pay for ordinary BBM, I bet many would. Those who like it, like it a lot and have no trouble paying for stickers etc already.
BB, Still the One
BBM now with all the spam pin requests I get and ads has turned me off from using it. It's lost its integrity. I use whatsapp way more now since I switched over to the DTEK60. Whatsapp is just cleaner.
BlackBerry does not doing anything with the commercial enduser (non paid) version of BBM. This was outsourced to another company awhile ago. My understanding is that BlackBerry is only involved with the paid BBM service
I've been done with BBM for some time now and have absolutely no plans on ever using it again.
I am still using BBM and have been in three active groups for the past couple of years. Wasn't aware of any subscription service being offered? Interesting.
End users won't see this as BBM. That's not what this is. (yes, BlackBerry has been ridiculously confusing with their twisting and turning of the BBM brand. That does suck.)
This new thing is BlackBerry essentially renting the infrastructure/plumbing of BBM as an API so that other developers can use their service and NOC to securely send messages, text, and video between our users.
So imagine a bank wants to add video chat to their app. They can use this BBM service to connect a user on the app to a financial coach via video. The user won't think of this as BBM, and won't require a BBM account or anything like that. The user may never have even heard of BBM. All the user sees is a video call with their financial coach provided by their favorite bank. The bank, on the other hand, has an easy way to add this new feature to their app in a way that is secure and safe and proven and all the things that banks care about.
The bank would pay a subscription fee to BBM instead of the per message fees we'd pay with Twilio or something like that. So apparently they plan to undercut Twilio on pricing (for large enterprise use cases at least)
TurboTax is running ads right now (on every TV channel it seems) where you can press a button on your app and video-chat with a TT rep about taking deductions, or where to fill in certain info on your tax return. That's exactly the kind of thing this new service would be used for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGmXNaQ4dcY
Sounds very promising, probable very little cost for BlackBerry to set this up, and initially not much in the way of increased equipment or bandwidth....
Where BlackBerry fails is in delivery..... how good is their SDK, and how much will the service cost? To initially setup and then for usage?
I saw something on were some think technology is heading.... AI (almost) along with BOTs, but in one of those the BOT for say General Motor would show up like a chat, and would interact with you visually as well as verbally It would smile and ask you a question about what information you were looking for... and then suggest a model car and then find it within a particular radius of your location. Even talked about how sensors on your device could be used to gauge your interest with eye movement and facial recognition.
Have no idea if that would really need BBM to accomplish this simulated Chat......(or if it would ever really happen)
I wanted to add that the subscription fee will go to BlackBerry, not BBM, since BBM is a different company now. BlackBerry branding obfuscation strikes again.