1. AmritD's Avatar
    Yes I know a lot of you will feel that it was a good business decision, but those aren't always the only considerations to make.
    The new BBM on Android and iOS doesn't even have the BlackBerry design language anymore. Doesn't matter if it is being handled by a 3rd party. Still carries the BlackBerry name and that is why people are still using (whoever few are)
    And the most annoying thing being ads. I don't know why does BlackBerry/Emtek think, that people would be willing to tolerate ads on BBM. People still might on WhatsApp, but why on earth would they do so on BBM?
    They should rather look to earn from all the services that they have been offering.
    Not to mention how far BBM still lacks in its media capabilities as compared to WhatsApp. Even the most simplest of features.
    It's almost like there is no passion left in BlackBerry for its own products anymore.

    Posted via CB10
    06-19-17 10:13 AM
  2. Troy Tiscareno's Avatar
    It's almost like there is no passion left in BlackBerry for its own products anymore.
    BBM has lost BB many (tens? hundreds? of) millions of dollars over the last 5 years. Past a certain point, you have to let things go.

    BB's passion is for NEW products that better fit what the company is all about - but those are enterprise-focused products, not consumer products. BB simply can't compete in the consumer space. They lack the money and resources, they have a different focus, and by being fairly isolated in Waterloo, they're also away from the pulse of the tech world.

    The enterprise world moves more slowly, and is in a position to better appreciate BB's focus on security (consumers as a whole really never did). Their pursuits now are a much better fit for them, and the stock market agrees, which is why the stock price has gone up.

    EMTEK also isn't trying to compete against WA or Line or FB Messenger - they're milking BBM for ad-based cash until it dries up.
    anon(9803228) likes this.
    06-19-17 10:36 AM
  3. AmritD's Avatar
    BBM has lost BB many (tens? hundreds? of) millions of dollars over the last 5 years. Past a certain point, you have to let things go.

    BB's passion is for NEW products that better fit what the company is all about - but those are enterprise-focused products, not consumer products. BB simply can't compete in the consumer space. They lack the money and resources, they have a different focus, and by being fairly isolated in Waterloo, they're also away from the pulse of the tech world.

    The enterprise world moves more slowly, and is in a position to better appreciate BB's focus on security (consumers as a whole really never did). Their pursuits now are a much better fit for them, and the stock market agrees, which is why the stock price has gone up.

    EMTEK also isn't trying to compete against WA or Line or FB Messenger - they're milking BBM for ad-based cash until it dries up.
    How has BBM lost BlackBerry so much money?
    So BBM might soon not exist at all?

    Posted via CB10
    06-19-17 11:19 AM
  4. app_Developer's Avatar
    BBM wasn't making any money. Stickers didn't help.

    Along came Emtek who offered BB good money to have a chance to monetize BBM in Indonesia where usage is still quite high. I don't think BB had any choice but to take what they could get.

    I see your point on risk to brand reputation, but isn't BBM promoted as "BBM", not with BlackBerry really spelled out anymore?
    06-19-17 11:25 AM
  5. Troy Tiscareno's Avatar
    How has BBM lost BlackBerry so much money?
    What do you think it costs per month for datacenters to host an app like BBM, and for all of the bandwidth to handle the traffic? What does it cost to store and maintain all of the data? Remember this has to be available worldwide.

    What does it cost to develop and support clients for 3 different OSs?

    BBM has costs, but BBM generated almost no revenues of its own - really nothing until BBM Protected and stickers were created, and eventually with ads on the Android and iOS platforms - but by then, BB was already working to license it out.

    BBM was a loss-leader app designed to bring people to BB phones and keep them there - and it was great for that in the early 2000s (and largely responsible for the "crackberry" moniker from people obsessively checking their messages and ignoring the real world around them to do so), but by 2014, BBM's hey-day was long past, and finally releasing an Android client only enabled millions of Indonesians (who lived on BBM) to dump their BBOS phones and run BBM on inexpensive but much fuller-featured Android phones.

    For everyone else, BBM continued its slide into irrelevancy.

    So BBM might soon not exist at all?
    It really depends on how much revenue EMTEK can make off of it and if they decide to invest any of that money back into the system, or just maintain it until it dies.

    I kind of suspect that this move is the first step in the process of shutting consumer BBM down outside of Indonesia and Southeast Asia - but that's pure speculation on my part (I have nothing to back it up other than that it makes sense, given how few people use it elsewhere, vs. the costs of making it available).

    In the tech world, if you aren't growing, you're dying, and BBM is definitely not growing.
    06-19-17 03:39 PM
  6. hoytbowhunter's Avatar
    BlackBerry is still all owned by BlackBerry. They just let a company in Indonesia run it there but the servers are still in the US and Canada.
    rayporsche likes this.
    06-19-17 06:42 PM
  7. howarmat's Avatar
    BlackBerry is still all owned by BlackBerry. They just let a company in Indonesia run it there but the servers are still in the US and Canada.
    uh you must have missed the news then about the move to google servers in Asia....

    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...628631103.html
    hoytbowhunter likes this.
    06-19-17 06:59 PM
  8. hoytbowhunter's Avatar
    uh you must have missed the news then about the move to google servers in Asia....

    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...628631103.html
    Wow! Alex just said 2 weeks ago that BBM would not be moving, guess he was wrong. So is there a server still in the US or is BBM out the Door all together?
    06-19-17 07:08 PM
  9. howarmat's Avatar
    Wow! Alex just said 2 weeks ago that BBM would not be moving, guess he was wrong. So is there a server still in the US or is BBM out the Door all together?
    consumer BBM is all gone I think.
    hoytbowhunter likes this.
    06-19-17 07:35 PM
  10. hoytbowhunter's Avatar
    That sucks! At least we still get to use BBM. I don't even text anymore cause BBM is all we use.
    06-19-17 07:51 PM
  11. app_Developer's Avatar
    Wow! Alex just said 2 weeks ago that BBM would not be moving, guess he was wrong. So is there a server still in the US or is BBM out the Door all together?
    BB executives have been vague or misleading in much of what they've said lately. I think they obfuscated much of what they said about BBM. I take anything they say with a great deal of salt now.

    They are doing whatever they can to save face for Watsa and others. You have to read what they say through that lens.
    06-19-17 08:28 PM
  12. qwerty4ever's Avatar
    Watsa reminds me of the corporate equivalent of a paedophile. Maybe you will think that is too strong but John Chen is Prem Watsa's boy toy.
    06-19-17 10:25 PM
  13. Ment's Avatar
    Wow! Alex just said 2 weeks ago that BBM would not be moving, guess he was wrong. So is there a server still in the US or is BBM out the Door all together?
    Did he mean enterprise BBM? It would make sense for him to say that AFAIK there are no plans to spin that out of BB like they did with consumer BBM.
    06-20-17 12:15 AM

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