BlackBerry has formally announced that BlackBerry Messenger, an over the air messaging client that’s been BlackBerry only since the days when men looked to the sky and wondered if they would ever fly like the birds, is finally going to go cross platform this weekend. Android users will get to use BBM this Saturday, and iOS users will get to use it on Sunday.
Unfortunately, the announcement came roughly around the same time that The Wall Street Journal published a piece saying BlackBerry is going to fire 40% of their employees in an effort to stay alive. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the company isn’t doing so hot right now. Hell, even Nokia is doing better than BlackBerry, which says a lot.
But back on topic, what other OTT messaging clients are out there? There’s the elephant in the room, WhatsApp, and let’s also not forget about LINE. But truth be told, chances are you have Facebook on your phone, and so do your friends, so that will suffice. Had BBM come out for Android in 2010 or 2011, maybe it would have mattered, but today?
No way.
