[LuvULongTime]

So, I want apps, I need apps, and we need to let BlackBerry know what apps we need....and we have done a great job of that. I HOPE they have gotten the message. IF they haven't, there is nothing more we can do about it, and we might as well look for other devices, as RIM is not long for this earthly plane. Just saying....and I am a loyal BB fan. All the hand wringing in the world will not change the situation.

Well said. At the end of the day, we all need to vote with our wallets. If BB10 does not have what current BB users need, then there are other platforms to move to that will have what we need. I like my Berries, and am curious to see what they unveil on Jan 30. I am optimistic and definitely have a glass half full mindset that we will all be very happy with what we see.

[gravymonster]

After reading this thread last night, I went to work and asked around and couldn't find one person who had heard of WhatsApp. I asked probably 25 people. Probably half iphone half android people. 1 blackberry user other than myself. If it weren't for CrackBerry I know I wouldn't know what it was. Is it a regional thing? I'm in the southern US.

[mhspb]

It's widely used by those who have relatives in other countries cuz it let's them txt over wifi for free...

[mhspb]

I personally would seriously reconsider buying bb10 if whatsapp is not there. And I'm a big bb fan... It's because I have a lot of groups on whatsapp, these friends are on bb android and iphones.. I send pictures and msgs to my sister who lives out of the country on whatsapp... It's very useful.

I got a bb first so I could be part of the BBM group that is now on whatsapp cuz a bunch of ppl from the group got new phones.. And if I can't be part of the group cuz the bb10 doesn't have the simple whatsapp app is pretty crazy...

[E92Vancouver]

After reading this thread last night, I went to work and asked around and couldn't find one person who had heard of WhatsApp. I asked probably 25 people. Probably half iphone half android people. 1 blackberry user other than myself. If it weren't for CrackBerry I know I wouldn't know what it was. Is it a regional thing? I'm in the southern US.

There have been 100 million downloads of Whatsapp on Android phones alone.

WhatsApp eclipses 100 million download mark on Google Play — Tech News and Analysis

The fact that not one of your co-workers has heard of Whatsapp is amazing. What industry do you work in and what is the average age?

If you told me you are retired, 70 years old and work for a non profit that is run by retired seniors to promote social activities for senior citizens, I would understand why no one you work with has heard of whatsapp. Am I right?

Blackberry users are a unique and almost insignificant factor of the smartphone universe. Here are the Q3 2012 market share stats:



And RIM is losing market share fast! BB users are now buying iphones and Androids. Don't know why, but they are.

[MADBRADNYC]

There have been 100 million downloads of Whatsapp on Android phones alone.
The fact that not one of your co-workers has heard of Whatsapp is amazing. What industry do you work in and what is the average age?

If you told me you are retired, 70 years old and work for a non profit that is run by retired seniors to promote social activities for senior citizens, I would understand why no one you work with has heard of whatsapp. Am I right?

Absolutely too funny!!!

[calicocat2010]

There have been 100 million downloads of Whatsapp on Android phones alone.

WhatsApp eclipses 100 million download mark on Google Play — Tech News and Analysis

The fact that not one of your co-workers has heard of Whatsapp is amazing. What industry do you work in and what is the average age?

If you told me you are retired, 70 years old and work for a non profit that is run by retired seniors to promote social activities for senior citizens, I would understand why no one you work with has heard of whatsapp. Am I right?

Blackberry users are a unique and almost insignificant factor of the smartphone universe. Here are the Q3 2012 market share stats:



And RIM is losing market share fast! BB users are now buying iphones and Androids. Don't know why, but they are.

I'm guessing one reason and it starts with "A".

[Jake Storm]

And RIM is losing market share fast! BB users are now buying iphones and Androids. Don't know why, but they are.

I'm guessing it might have something to do with the fact that RIM haven't released a new phone in a year and a half.

Take a look at that chart. Even with old dated phones RIM sold more than twice what Microsoft did. Imagine what it's going to look like this year with BB10 phones out.

[CMWYW]

Anyone check out Wechat yet? Got it from appworld today. Haven't really used it much, but looks like it may be a good alternative to Whatsapp if Wechat is om BB10 and not Whatsapp.

[qbnkelt]

I personally would seriously reconsider buying bb10 if whatsapp is not there. And I'm a big bb fan... It's because I have a lot of groups on whatsapp, these friends are on bb android and iphones.. I send pictures and msgs to my sister who lives out of the country on whatsapp... It's very useful.

I got a bb first so I could be part of the BBM group that is now on whatsapp cuz a bunch of ppl from the group got new phones.. And if I can't be part of the group cuz the bb10 doesn't have the simple whatsapp app is pretty crazy...

Brilliant. I've been saying this all along. Thank you for affirming my point.

[qbnkelt]

Anyone check out Wechat yet? Got it from appworld today. Haven't really used it much, but looks like it may be a good alternative to Whatsapp if Wechat is om BB10 and not Whatsapp.

What is Wechat's penetration as opposed to WhatsApp?

A new chat client on a new OS....not exactly as powerful as an established cross platform client on a new OS.

As far as not knowing anyone on WhatsApp.....I am the last person on my team at work who has a personal BB along with my SGIII and 4S. Every last member of my team is on WhatsApp. That includes govvies and contractors. The entire group, just my team alone, is 38 people. All 38 use WhatsApp.

That's my immediate circle at work.

Personal....every last in the flesh friend and family member is on WhatsApp. That even includes those who are on iMessage, but who use WhatsApp to connect to non iPhone contacts.

I now have three friends on BBM after getting one back two days ago.

Which has a wider reach today? Considering BB's greatly diminished marketshare, I would logically state that if there are fewer phones that use BBM and more that support WhatsApp then those phones that support WhatsApp would be more desirable to someone making a two-year commitment/purchase.

If someone doesn't want to use WhatsApp then don't use it, just like Instagram. But *consumers buying non BB devices in droves* have come to expect it and it has greater penetration than BB or Live Profile.

People want to connect with family and friends. If a platform doesn't support the means to do that they will go elsewhere. If I can only buy one phone and that phone does not allow me to connect to my friends and family in the manner that I do now, why would I spend the money on the one phone I buy every two years?

One answer? Make BBM cross platform. I'd buy it for my SGIII and my 4S.

[gezzledinho]

Established cross platform is the only way to go and that means Whatsapp is a must.

[astraith]

Yeah, I can see the group chat thing being an advantage.
You could be right about it being there at launch. It really is pointless for people to get upset about missing apps before they are announced.
Bring on Jan. 30th!

Exactly. Wait until the platform is announced, and a few months after that. WhatsApp probably just doesn't know there plans, so they don't announce anything.

An Android port would be an easy first step. I'm sure the whatsapp people have stats breaking down the number of users they have on each platform. If an Android port proved to be successful then I think we would see a native version follow eventually. I really don't blame devs for taking a wait a see approach. For all wee know RIM has not courted whatsapp because they are planning to take BBM cross platform. Now wouldn't that be something.

I was thinking about that. If BBM goes cross platform, would that hurt BB10 sales? Do people buy BB just for BBM? If not, then doing that would be smart. If so, doing that would be a bad idea.

After reading this thread last night, I went to work and asked around and couldn't find one person who had heard of WhatsApp. I asked probably 25 people. Probably half iphone half android people. 1 blackberry user other than myself. If it weren't for CrackBerry I know I wouldn't know what it was. Is it a regional thing? I'm in the southern US.

I am not surprised you haven't heard of it. I only know what it is because my friends use to use it. My ex-wife only knows about it because of me. Both of us are in our twenties.

[Grumblegrumble]

For whats its worth, I read this earlier, and do have it working on playbook currently.

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...orking-735211/

[E92Vancouver]

I'm guessing it might have something to do with the fact that RIM haven't released a new phone in a year and a half.

Take a look at that chart. Even with old dated phones RIM sold more than twice what Microsoft did. Imagine what it's going to look like this year with BB10 phones out.

Good point Gringo!

[Roo Zilla]

What is Wechat's penetration as opposed to WhatsApp?
.

WeChat is actually quite huge and it probably has a much larger user base than WhatsApp. The problem is, the users are almost all Chinese. It has some unique features that make it interesting. There's a "look around" thing that lets you see all the people around you. There's also a voice chat feature where you can leave voice messages, which is actually quite handy since I can't read or write in Chinese.

[Mikey_T]

In their defense; they had NO public plans to develop an app for Windows Phone 7.5 when it was announced (first OS version that gave devs access to the contact list - necessary to Whatsapp); they didn't announce until the app was ready to go; and it was on phones shortly after they hit shelves.

[jafrul]

Anyone check out Wechat yet? Got it from appworld today. Haven't really used it much, but looks like it may be a good alternative to Whatsapp if Wechat is om BB10 and not Whatsapp.

Hey.. Thanks for the heads up on wechat...
I downloaded it just now and TP my surprise there's quite a number of my friends has been using it.
Too bad for os5&6, which is using wechat VER1.0, we could only use voice note. But for androids and uphones with VER4.2 and above, they could use video calls over wifi or 3G. That's outstanding...
I just hope they develop a newer version for BB10 so that we all could have an alternative for multi platform im and video calls as well...
Quite a good app which I did recommend to my relatives and friends...
Oh, and did I mentioned U have to approve your friends before chatting?
Cool. At least no more sudden chat from someone we don't know.

[JPMorgan_]

It's not a regional thing.... EVERY SINGLE ONE of my contacts here in Mexico use WhatsApp.... it's masive.

[gravymonster]

There have been 100 million downloads of Whatsapp on Android phones alone.

WhatsApp eclipses 100 million download mark on Google Play — Tech News and Analysis

The fact that not one of your co-workers has heard of Whatsapp is amazing. What industry do you work in and what is the average age?

I manage a chain restaurant. Most of my employees are high school/college age (16-24). Working around them I feel like I stay pretty "in the know" about what's trendy with these types of things. So again, when I asked about it. Not only did none of them use it. None of them had even heard of it.

[jafrul]

I manage a chain restaurant. Most of my employees are high school/college age (16-24). Working around them I feel like I stay pretty "in the know" about what's trendy with these types of things. So again, when I asked about it. Not only did none of them use it. None of them had even heard of it.

too bad they haven't heard about it..
here in Malaysia, whenever i key in new numbers into my phonebook, 9/10 will have their names popped up in whatsapp.
that shows how acceptable it is to multi platform users...
but alas, now i'm switching to wechat app and have now been promoting my friends to use it...

Sent from my unsliding slider BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

[FRG_RC]

It is huge? Not really. Over here what is "HUGE" is texting packages. Whats it's only "really" useful for people who happens to have friends/family overseas. On my work only ONE person uses it. I do have the app and I use it almost everyday, but I don't really care it is on BB10 or not. I can contact with all my "whatsapp" contacts with other means.

Do I want it on BB10? Sure, why not?
Do I care or will affect my decision over buying a Z10 if it is not on BB10 at launch? No.

[sf49ers]

simple, whatsapp wants to be bought out like Skype, no reason why they would ignore Blackberry...they will paid on the basis of number of subscribers at the time of sale.

100 million downloads doesn't mean anything(I personally installed it on 10 devices but never chatted, I use viber most of the times)..only 100 million users mean something.

Also whatsapp is not the only thing people use, they have mutiple chat apps installed on their phones for example : viber, wechat, onchat, kick, google talk, fbmessenger etc..irrespective of all these surprisingly 99% people in my contact list here in the USA ping me on gtalk or use iMessage to communicate with their Iphone buddies.

[Knightcrawler]

all this debate about people switching or not buying bb10 if whatsapp is not on it.....why all the fuss if you can just use the android app?

As far as the end user is concerned, an app is an app. whether its an android app or a native app is of no consequence as long as the app is there and usable.

Now if something has changed in the last week or so and the droid app cannot be used, lemme know. But as i recall, the original article specifically stated that the droid app still worked.

[Zetti]

Whatsapp today announced that they now have 7 billion inbound messages a day which is a 75% increase from August 2012. Anybody think that not having this app is still not a big deal is just kidding themselves.

For people who are on these forums no its not a big deal and we will just port the android version, but go out and talk to any one of your friends who aren't on these forums that you just need to port it over and they will look at you like you have 3 heads. Im not saying that the Blackberry team in charge of getting apps on BB10 is doing a bad job, but this is a pretty big app that should of definitely been on that list of 100 apps that need to be there on day 1. Everybody has seen how the news loves to kick companies when they are down and not having whatsapp on day 1 is a reason for them to do it.