BBM was supposed to arrive on both Android and iOS this weekend, but due to technical difficulties, BlackBerry decided to pause the global rollout of the app for the time being.
While this is clearly bad news for those who wanted to at least try out BBM on their smartphones, it's also an indication that BlackBerry still has chances to get back on track. At some level, people are actually interested in its apps, hence the surprisingly big number of downloads that BBM for iOS experienced in the first hours on the market.
Windows Phone users can download BBM for Windows from Windows Phone Store. So, as of now you have used BBM in smart mobiles. If you want to have the experience of using BBM on the large screen of Windows or MAC, read this article and after you complete the reading, you will get to know how to download BBM for PC /Laptop and install BBM for. BlackBerry has now released its popular BlackBerry Messenger app (BBM) for the Windows Phone. This means that owners of Nokia Lumia phones can now download the BBM at the Windows Phone store and connect with their friends and colleagues already on the popular messaging app.
The Canadian company claims that more than 1.1 million users registered to download BBM in the first 8 hours, even though the Android version wasn't yet available.
As you can see, we're only talking about two different platforms here, Android and iOS, both of which are said to be ruling the smartphone market at this point.
But what about Windows Phone?
Microsoft wasn't invited to the BBM launch party, but nobody knows the reason right now. And still, it's easily to figure out why.
It all comes down to only a couple of reasons.
First, Microsoft doesn't care about it.
Secondly, nobody cares about it.
At this point, Windows Phone is still struggling to compete with iOS and Android on almost every market out there, even though Microsoft has invested a fortune in making the platform successful. The Softies have even lied to us, claiming that Windows Phone was growing so much that it could become number one at some point.
That never happened though, and Windows Phone seems to remain a mediocre mobile OS that some developers are avoiding. Because the cash is somewhere else. Making and selling an iOS app, for example, is much easier than doing the same thing on Windows Phone.
In a recent meeting with financial analysts, Microsoft has admitted that Windows Phone has almost no market share. Here's what outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer told the audience:
“If there's one thing I guess you would say I regret, I regret that there was a period in the early 2000s when we were so focused on what we had to do around Windows, that we weren't able to redeploy talent to the new device form factor called the phone,” he said during his keynote.
“That would probably [be] the thing I would tell you I regret the most, because the time we missed was about the time we were working away on what became Vista, and I wish we'd had our resources slightly differently deployed.”
So, if Microsoft doesn't think that Windows Phone has chances to succeed, why should we?
And this makes porting BBM to Windows Phone a waste of time and resources. Which, let's be honest, BlackBerry doesn't afford right now.
Now, let's get down to the second reason.
As an avid BlackBerry user, I think that BBM is a great app. The only problem with it is that nobody uses it these days.
With WhatsApp available on so many platforms and already becoming extremely popular in every little corner of the world, BBM has slight chances to impress. Even if it arrives on Android and iOS.
As a result, bringing BBM on Windows Phone, a platform that has a really small market share, isn't worth the effort. Again, BlackBerry doesn't have the time and resources to do it. Maybe at some point, when another company that has the financial strength to do, it will buy BlackBerry, BBM might land on Windows Phone too, but for the moment, you have no other option than to stick to WhatsApp.
I started crawling the web looking for an answer to this question this morning, and the same answer is basically posted on every forum, blog, or website. People aren't interested in BBM, not with WhatsApp holding such a large user base.
And here comes my next question: if BBM is not at all appealing, how come millions of iOS and Android users are trying to download the app right now?
(For the record, we've reached to Microsoft for a word on this, so we'll post an update if we get an answer.)
More than 85 million people around the world use BlackBerry’s instant messaging service across a multitude of platforms. Its arrival on Windows Phone is an exciting one, as expressed by John Sims, President Global Enterprise Services at BlackBerry:
“As the popularity of BBM continues to grow, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to expand its availability to the Windows Phone community.
The BBM app for Windows Phone is an exciting new chapter for the BBM service, and we are excited to be working with Microsoft to deliver a new level of collaboration to the Windows Phone platform.”
BBM Beta for Windows Phone delivers these renowned features:
The Chats page is where you’ll find all of your chats; one-on-one, multi-person, or group chats.
Chats can consist of simple text messages, voice notes, your location, and photos from your gallery or directly from your camera.
Chats also include BBM signature “R” and “D” notifications that allow you to see when a message has been read or delivered.
Up to 50 people can be added to a group chat, meaning nobody need miss out on any of the conversation.
Chat, share photos and schedules with all of your friends.
Don’t talk to yourself; get all of your mates involved.
You can invite your friends to be included in your BBM contact list right from within the app by sharing your BBM PIN.
Who’s doing what, where and when? You can check out your friends’ latest status updates or profile photos from within the feed list.
It’s here that you can also make your own status update, so everybody knows what you’re up to.
To keep your BBM Group or one-on-one chats just a single tap away, you can pin them to your Start screen.
BBM Beta for Windows Phone focuses on bringing the speed, privacy and security of BBM – loved by millions around the world – to Windows Phone 8 devices. Version 2 is already in the works, with additional Windows Phone features planned.
BBM Beta is free to download and available from the Windows Phone Store now.
Have you downloaded it yet?