BlackBerry confirms Messenger for iOS submitted two weeks ago, awaiting approval
The BlackBerry Messenger app's arrival on iOS could be imminent, as a BlackBerry rep has announced that the app was submitted for Apple's App Store approval some two weeks ago.
Word of the submission came Friday afternoon from the Twitter account of BlackBerry's Alex Kinsella. "Just in case we forgot to mention," Kinsella wrote, "BBM for iPhone was submitted for review 2 wks ago. #waiting #BBM4ALL"
BlackBerry initially promised the app in May of this year, saying it would arrive on both Android and iOS over the summer.
"The time is definitely right for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile service," Andrew Bocking, executive vice president of Software Product Management and Ecosystem at BlackBerry said in a press release. "BBM has always been one of the most engaging services for BlackBerry customers, enabling them to easily connect while maintaining a valued level of personal privacy. We?re excited to offer iOS and Android users the possibility to join the BBM community."
BBM was once the gold standard in mobile messaging, with its secure interface and powerful tools. In the years since, though, its fortunes have mirrored those of BlackBerry itself, with some users moving away to other platforms as competition increased.
When it does debut on iOS and Android, BlackBerry Messenger will face not only services like Apple's iMessage, which reproduces many of BBM's features as well as its security, but also Google's Hangouts app, which allows for much of the same functionality and is deeply integrated into Google's existing services. It will also go up against third-party apps like WhatsApp, which has a user base in the hundreds of millions.
According to BlackBerry, BBM has more than 60 million monthly active users, and more than 51 million of those people use BBM for an average of 90 minutes per day. BBM customers send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day.
Word of the submission came Friday afternoon from the Twitter account of BlackBerry's Alex Kinsella. "Just in case we forgot to mention," Kinsella wrote, "BBM for iPhone was submitted for review 2 wks ago. #waiting #BBM4ALL"
BlackBerry initially promised the app in May of this year, saying it would arrive on both Android and iOS over the summer.
"The time is definitely right for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile service," Andrew Bocking, executive vice president of Software Product Management and Ecosystem at BlackBerry said in a press release. "BBM has always been one of the most engaging services for BlackBerry customers, enabling them to easily connect while maintaining a valued level of personal privacy. We?re excited to offer iOS and Android users the possibility to join the BBM community."
BBM was once the gold standard in mobile messaging, with its secure interface and powerful tools. In the years since, though, its fortunes have mirrored those of BlackBerry itself, with some users moving away to other platforms as competition increased.
When it does debut on iOS and Android, BlackBerry Messenger will face not only services like Apple's iMessage, which reproduces many of BBM's features as well as its security, but also Google's Hangouts app, which allows for much of the same functionality and is deeply integrated into Google's existing services. It will also go up against third-party apps like WhatsApp, which has a user base in the hundreds of millions.
According to BlackBerry, BBM has more than 60 million monthly active users, and more than 51 million of those people use BBM for an average of 90 minutes per day. BBM customers send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day.
Comments
The App Store probably put it on the back burner and thought if they'd hold out for two weeks then maybe BlackBerry would be out of business.
Hey Blackberry, the game started about 4 years ago! You're a little late.
Agreed! Way too late. They should've released this when their first tablet failed. They could've at least saved their services from suffering the same fate as their hardware.
You talking about the tablet that didn't even have an email app?? As I understand it, that tablet supported Flash and multitasking. What good is multitasking on a tablet with only one app?
Companies don't pick up BB's for the BBM. They do so primarily coz the data plan provided by the service providers are much cheaper compared to other phones. Hence the voice calls / data plans coming at a way lower price both while home and internationally makes the BB affordable to organizations. This is the case in some regions of the world. If BB lost that single advantage they are history. Until then they still remains.
Hopefully it will encourage companies that only offer their employees the BlackBerry to offer them the iPhone too, since the two devices will be able to message each other.
The real problem here is that lazy IT deciders have been doing nothing else than copying BB's whitepapers to write up their own requirements when making procurements for years. For the companies not allowing BYOD and running on specs dictated by BB, there is no alternative - it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. (Just as you limit the choice of available server OSs dramatically, once you center your entire security model around Group Policies, no matter if you make any beneficial use of them or not, or if the same could be achieved by other means just having a different name.)
Since European reports have today revealed that BBs have been hacked by the NSA since 2009, the international demand for BBs will drop even further. And thanks to the uncertainty about who will own BB before the end of the year, even many US banks and organizations remain on the sidelines and replace nothing for now (sticking with BB7 devices and BES 5), as they have manoeuvred themselves into requirements (copied from their own vendor) that nobody else can satisfy. Yes, if BB (or at least the BES and NOC parts) go to an owner that is deemed unacceptable to these organizations (and that excludes pretty much everybody outside North America, and even US companies may be deemed unacceptable to international corporations for now), then all these companies can rework their mobile security requirements from scratch, as there is no product left on the market that could "do it".
Taking the company private (eventually with money from large customers and governments) would be the only way to keep this house of cards from collapsing. Will be interesting to watch.
Companies don't pick up BB's for the BBM. They do so primarily coz the data plan provided by the service providers are much cheaper compared to other phones. Hence the voice calls / data plans coming at a way lower price both while home and internationally makes the BB affordable to organizations. This is the case in some regions of the world. If BB lost that single advantage they are history. Until then they still remains.
That used to be the case (still is with some legacy devices and contracts), but this has already been in steep decline since BB offered some almost true smartphones (like the Storm), which had 3G, full browsers etc. The old tariffs were made for devices with limited capabilities (and corporate mail being pretty much the only data service used). You do not get any corporate rates for a Z10/30 or a Q5/10 that you could not get for any other smartphone.
So sad for you BlackBerry, but at least you know where your ex customers have gone.
lol. iphone hasn't changed since that time. Oh, sorry it comes in pink now.