[schmeat]

Uh oh.. There is potentially bad news on the Blackberry front, something that seems to be in the news almost weekly now. One of, if not the largest reason people have stuck to Blackberry was BBM. BBM launched for both Android and iOS after being delayed for quite a while. The app was downloaded millions of times within 24 hours and can be considered a huge success. But that could be where the fun stops.

While reaching over 10 million installs on Google Play alone so fast is incredible, we hear from more then one source now that the install base has slowed to a crawl. Its quite possible there are still thousands of installs a day, but the issue they believe they have is keeping the app installed on users phones. For that reason active users are down considerably, we are told in the 30% to 35% range. That spells trouble for a company already in the hole and trying to dig itself out. At that rate there is little chance, if any at all, they can catch up to the monster install base of Whatsapp, Kik, and Google Hangouts, among others in the IM app battle. Let’s hope that they can pump out some big updates with more features ASAP. We are told build .88 could be next on the list to push to Google Play as an update.

Circlejerk (reddit) via Source

[howarmat]

until i see some hard proof i dont think i can go off some random reddit post

[missing_K-W]

This means nothing. We hit a plateau and now adoption of BBM should stabilize to an average adoption rate. The initial rush is over. Steady growth from here on out

Posted via CB10

[schmeat]

until i see some hard proof i dont think i can go off some random reddit post

Yeah I got the "Via" switched around. Anyways, it's definitely a rumour and I'm not sure how credible the source is, but I thought it was worth a discussion.

[m1a1mg]

Once again, BB could tell us how many active users they have. All the other chat apps love to share this type of info. It's how they monetize their product.

[ElGusta]

Once again, BB could tell us how many active users they have. All the other chat apps love to share this type of info. It's how they monetize their product.

This is true, of course we all know the reason why they won't do this (small number of actual active users).

[Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes]

This means nothing. We hit a plateau and now adoption of BBM should stabilize to an average adoption rate. The initial rush is over. Steady growth from here on out

Posted via CB10

The plateau should be more than a few weeks. As evidenced by other IM apps that are still up there in the app stores. If the adoption rate were a continuing success we would see press releases as evidenced by the releases when things were good.

[m1a1mg]

#166 in the US Play Store.

[JasW]

#166 in the US Play Store.

While the 3 main competitors to BBM are still well up in the top 25. And Hangouts is pretty much on every Android device.

[Gunner24]

Man, who cares about the US jesus... IM apps are popular in different regions, BBM is still number three iPhone app in Canada, number 4 in UK, number 2 in Indonesia and number 5 in India - and number 1 in 20 different countries! not quite as good in play store but could be because not available for lots of android devices.

Posted from my Q10 on the West Coast

[DenverRalphy]

I don't know if it's true, but I can say with confidence that it's plausible. Mainly because my experience falls smack in the middle of the claim. I installed it, played with it a bit, then uninstalled it after being unsatisfied. Granted, I'll probably install it again after any significant revision is released.

More features would be nice. But more importantly, the app itself needs a re-work as it's mediocre in design and poor in execution. Too many bugs and annoyances to expect the average user to leave it installed on their device.

[sentimentGX4]

Man, who cares about the US jesus... IM apps are popular in different regions, BBM is still number three iPhone app in Canada, number 4 in UK, number 2 in Indonesia and number 5 in India - and number 1 in 20 different countries! not quite as good in play store but could be because not available for lots of android devices.

Because the United States is the largest affluent nation in the world (by a wide margin) and where all the primary software developers reside.

[kbz1960]

I don't know if it's true, but I can say with confidence that it's plausible. Mainly because my experience falls smack in the middle of the claim. I installed it, played with it a bit, then uninstalled it after being unsatisfied. Granted, I'll probably install it again after any significant revision is released.

More features would be nice. But more importantly, the app itself needs a re-work as it's mediocre in design and poor in execution. Too many bugs and annoyances to expect the average user to leave it installed on their device.

Sounds like typical bbry. Mediocre and buggy and lacking. Really wish they had a better first try.

[Knightcrawler]

I don't know if it's true, but I can say with confidence that it's plausible. Mainly because my experience falls smack in the middle of the claim. I installed it, played with it a bit, then uninstalled it after being unsatisfied. Granted, I'll probably install it again after any significant revision is released.

More features would be nice. But more importantly, the app itself needs a re-work as it's mediocre in design and poor in execution. Too many bugs and annoyances to expect the average user to leave it installed on their device.

The design is the same as bb10, but it's a subjective thing, so I can understand that. But what poor execution are you referring to?


Posted via CB10

[DenverRalphy]

The design is the same as bb10, but it's a subjective thing, so I can understand that. But what poor execution are you referring to?

I wasn't referring to the resemblance to BB10 when I said mediocre design. I was referring to missing options that should have been no-brainers (ie.. the inability to turn off group notifications), viewing a group chat going to the most recent post instead of bookmarking the last unread, odd font size choices, wasted screen real-estate for no logical reason, the design choice to maintain it's own TCP connection (which requires it to be always on and increases battery/resource consumption) instead of using the OS' built in solution via GCM. As for poor execution... there are just too many bugs (like the UI occasionally becoming unresponsive under certain conditions), inconsistent and redundant UI interactions, memory and data consumption above what should be expected.

That's just off the top of my head. But there's more. I just don't feel like listing them all out again as they've been discussed over and over in other threads/forums on CB and elsewhere, and I'm actually burned out on the topic.

[southlander]

The only complaint from the Android users I got to install it is no landscape mode. They all still have it installed.

[MidnightSociety]

I wasn't referring to the resemblance to BB10 when I said mediocre design. I was referring to missing options that should have been no-brainers (ie.. the inability to turn off group notifications), viewing a group chat going to the most recent post instead of bookmarking the last unread, odd font size choices, wasted screen real-estate for no logical reason, the design choice to maintain it's own TCP connection (which requires it to be always on and increases battery/resource consumption) instead of using the OS' built in solution via GCM. As for poor execution... there are just too many bugs (like the UI occasionally becoming unresponsive under certain conditions), inconsistent and redundant UI interactions, memory and data consumption above what should be expected.

That's just off the top of my head. But there's more. I just don't feel like listing them all out again as they've been discussed over and over in other threads/forums on CB and elsewhere, and I'm actually burned out on the topic.

We live in a time where everything has to be perfect out the gate. We scream for minimal viable products. I assure you even if there were to have launched with Channels, BBM voice and video there would still be some subjective issues. Using it on my note 2 the app for a first generation was "functional". It was about getting out the door. The line has to be drawn in the sand at some point.

Posted via CB10

[GTiLeo]

This means nothing. We hit a plateau and now adoption of BBM should stabilize to an average adoption rate. The initial rush is over. Steady growth from here on out

Posted via CB10

exactly, and activity from a new app is always greater from people talkign about how great bbm is, my sister still uses BBM constantly rather then text messaging

[DenverRalphy]

We live in a time where everything has to be perfect out the gate. We scream for minimal viable products. I assure you even if there were to have launched with Channels, BBM voice and video there would still be some subjective issues. Using it on my note 2 the app for a first generation was "functional". It was about getting out the door. The line has to be drawn in the sand at some point.

Nobody ever said it had to be perfect. I know I never expected it to be perfect. And yes, a line does needs to be drawn. However, in my own personal opinion, in this particular case the line was incorrectly placed. And to be quite frank about it... Blackberry has abused the notion of "every new piece of tech will have bugs and issues at first release" a bit too much over the years.

[g33kphr33k]

Because the United States is the largest affluent nation in the world (by a wide margin) and where all the primary software developers reside.

All the primary? India and China, I'm sure you've heard of those? League cash table puts USA first, until you look at debt levels.

Anyhow, I only know of one user that's added and then uninstalled so far.

Posted via CB10

[MidnightSociety]

Nobody ever said it had to be perfect. I know I never expected it to be perfect. And yes, a line does needs to be drawn. However, in my own personal opinion, in this particular case the line was incorrectly placed. And to be quite frank about it... Blackberry has abused the notion of "every new piece of tech will have bugs and issues at first release" a bit too much over the years.

I have to agree with you. They, BlackBerry has made bugs the norm. I do respect your opinion about the line possibly being drawn in the wrong place. My opinion which I think is on the minority has been functionality over design. However there have been delivery issues when the app launched.

Posted via CB10

[DenverRalphy]

My opinion which I think is on the minority has been functionality over design.

I don't think that opinion is the minority, as it's a pretty sound principal. I share the same viewpoint. I was able to look past many of the design shortcomings myself. Unfortunately, what finally did it in for me though, was when I found myself having to monitor and sometimes babysit the app more often than I'd care to encounter.

However there have been delivery issues when the app launched.

I was fortunate, in that I never experienced (or maybe just never noticed) the delivery issues. Though from all the accounts across forums discussing it, I'm sure it's a very real issue.

[qwerty4ever]

Sounds like typical bbry. Mediocre and buggy and lacking. Really wish they had a better first try.

BlackBerry's motto is aim low and achieve mediocrity; call it success.

[nabil114]

This means nothing. We hit a plateau and now adoption of BBM should stabilize to an average adoption rate. The initial rush is over. Steady growth from here on out

Posted via CB10

They have competition.

[wuulfy]

Schadenfreude seems to be the word of the day.

Posted via CB10