When BlackBerry announced back in May that BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) would come to Android and IOS platforms, the promised launch date was just ‘this summer’, but in past few weeks rumours, leaks and news are picking up pace pointing to a launch happening very soon. Yesterday, the news of BBM coming soon to your Android device came from a unlikely source, well likely actually for the marketing machine that Samsung is.
“Samsung to offer BBM in Samsung Apps store for all GALAXY Smartphone devices” said the title of the press release, and the details reveal two things: the news is targeted to Galaxy device customers on the African continent, and Samsung says itself the BBM app will be available in the Google Play store in addition to the Samsung Apps market.
Why target Africa, well, BBM is still bing in a lot of African countries, along with, and sometimes even ahead of, WhatsApp. What better market for Samsung to give “Offering BBM on GALAXY smartphones in Africa will give Samsung customers access to the BBM social network, including BBM chats, multi-person chats and and BBM Groups,the message”. It may be Samsung see marketing and PR opportunity in Africa where BlackBerry itself is focusing on traditional markets.
There’s no date detail just that the Galaxy devices will have BBM on launch. It’s not clear just how much of a big deal the more open BBM will in countries like Zimbabwe where telecoms regulation hasn’t allowed BBM in. Only to have it come anyway. Considering the millions of Zimbabweans in neighbouring South Africa, who knows, BBM might just be the new WhatsApp here.
Full press release here.
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7 comments
No way we gonna see the BBM becoming a hit. The IM space is already crowded, and the assertion that BBM is on par or ahead of Whatsapp in Africa is ridiculous. Feature phones dominate in Africa and some of them have Whatsapp capability.
I personally don’t think that BBM is gonna be much of a hit, whats their value proposition? What would a user get from using BBM as compared to the IM app he/she is already using? With MAU of 250 million sending 4 billion messages on Whatsapp (on my last check RIM had only 50 milion users – not MAUs – on BBM in April 2013) I foresee BBM struggling to get a huge chunk of the whatsapp market unless they introduce something spectacular when they roll out the serice to iOS and Android.
problem ine ma ‘IT experts’ inyaya yekuti paka introjuswa a new product they assume kuti the new product is meant to replace an existing one. that is not always the case.
You launch a product to compete with the existing ones, winning the contest is a bonus. 50million users (yauri kuti ishoma) yakawanda stereki. Yes whatsapp is the leader but things change mu IT industry (if they didnt we would be using yahoo mail, searching pa AltaVista, tese tine ma GeoCities etc).
Whatsapp yakatanga manje manje, ika beater vaitongawo that time, ende ino gona kuzo dyiwawo one day (maybe not nhasi, but maybe some other day).
Wataura apa. Suzuki/KIA/Mahindra haifi yaka kunda BMW, but zvimota zvaka nyangara izvozvo zviri kuto vaitira.
+1
Maybe…
“….It’s not clear just how much of a big deal the more open BBM will in countries like Zimbabwe where telecoms regulation hasn’t allowed BBM in….” I think BBM will be like Google Chat or Ichat/Imessages. Just using your data connection to communicate.