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BBM Coming To iOS and Android
grub writes writes with news that BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has announced that BBM (BlackBerry Messenger, one of the favorite features of BlackBerry device-owners) will soon be coming to rival mobile operating systems. Devices running iOS 6 and Android ICS or later will be supported, pending approval with the App Store and Google Play.
"BBM uses carrier data networks to pass secure messages back and forth through its servers to other BlackBerry users. The service recently gained the ability to make phone calls, conduct video chats and even share screen tops with other BBM users (requires BlackBerry 10). Normal chat and group chats will be the first features to hit the Android and iOS BBM apps, followed by the others (including voice and video) during the course of the year. BBM for Android and iOS will be free."
The company also unveiled a new smartphone today: the Q5. It's a budget device intended for emerging markets.
No, it's supposed to make you say, "Thank goodness, now I don't have to buy a Blackberry, but I can still chat with the people stuck with them."
It was inevitable, BBM was too important to fade away with the handset business. I wonder if this had anything to do with approving iOS and Android for use by certain governmental agencies (DoD, etc).
Now I can use this supremely user-friendly chat system that assigns me a random 8-digit hex string as an ID on my iPhone!
--Joakim Ziegler
Can you say too little too late?
No. But I can BBM it.
It was only inevitable, now that the company has come to its senses "Whatsapp" and Apple's "Messages" might hit hard, can't say in terms of sales for respective brand's devices though.
Oooh, encryption, encryption which they'll open up for governments to look at upon demand. I would feel absolutely confident in using encryption which can be bypassed like it wasn't there.
I mean, if it's encrypted it must be secure and good, right?
No, because since they can (and do) bypass it, their encryption is utterly useless. They've already demonstrated they can and will obviate your encryption.
So, I ask again, why is BBM so important? Because your argument for encryption is garbage when they can step around that.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I don't feel stuck with my BB10 device at all. It's far better than my last phone, an Android piece of junk that lagged with a horrible, clunky UI and needed to be put on the charger three times a day. It makes the iPhone look like a toy.
Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.
You can set up your own BES and be the sole holder of the encryption key. I suppose some kind of government intrusion is possible (key loggers, cameras pointed at your phone, whatever), but if the government is motivated enough to go that far, you probably shouldn't be using a cell phone to make your secret plans. For the rest of us, it's plenty fine.
Oooh, encryption, encryption which they'll open up for governments to look at upon demand. I would feel absolutely confident in using encryption which can be bypassed like it wasn't there.
I mean, if it's encrypted it must be secure and good, right?
No, because since they can (and do) bypass it, their encryption is utterly useless. They've already demonstrated they can and will obviate your encryption.
So, I ask again, why is BBM so important? Because your argument for encryption is garbage when they can step around that.
It depends on if these new apps can join a BES (blackberry enterprise server) BBM system. In that mode, the encryption is maintained privately on the server, not by BB, Inc. and therefore it is theoretically secure. I say theoretically since there is still no guarantee that there is not a backdoor present which allows for snooping of intercepted messages anyway...
Google Talk also lets me make free international long distance phone calls, while still only has the same limitations that BBM does: it's effectively insecure and only works with other people who subscribe to it.
Not entirely true. It works with anyone with a XMPP account.
There are far too many proprietary im services out there...
Email was great, there are many different email services, and they all interoperate...
The telephone is great too, there are many different telcos and they all interoperate.
But since then...
First we had IRC, all these disparate unconnected networks but at least you could still use a client of your choice.
Then we got instant messaging... ICQ, AIM, Yahoo etc, all unconnected and each with its own client. Multi protocol IM clients made this slightly less intolerable but still, you need a bunch of accounts to talk to different people and you end up having to sign up new accounts because one friend of yours happens to use a service you haven't used before.
And today it just gets worse and worse, services are increasingly proprietary and there are more and more of them every week. It's absolute madness!
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
It'll send text messages, voice, video chat, etc. over your data plan to any other BBM user. That way it burns through your data allotment rather than your voice/text allotment.
It'll be particularly handy if you have, say, a 3G tablet that doesn't do voice, or if you have access to a cheap data plan but your voice calls and texts are relatively expensive.
BBM goes through their network, not via your BES...
Incidentally, pull the battery out of your blackberry... Now put it back in, power it up and watch what it does...
It boots, then starts talking to your BES and retrieving mail in the background *before* you have unlocked the device. Therefore:
The unlock requirement is enforced by the device itself.
The keys necessary to access your BES and the encrypted data on the device are stored on the device itself.
This is known as client side security, and i shouldn't have to explain why it's bad.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
First off, BB was never the king- Symbian was. It always crushed BB worldwide.
Secondly, do you know how ridiculous you sound claiming that 1 billion people jump on anything in a heartbeat? These numbers don't grow fast, it took years to grow when smartphones had a huge advantage in features vs the competition (feature phones) and are only just now overtaking them in total. Moving those numbers when comparing apples to apples between smartphones is nearly impossible- Android only overtook Apple by creating a low end market.
Secondly, it was totally to do with features. BB was a powerful company that rested on their laurels. They didn't try to drive to the mass market, they were happy with the business market. When they got piledriven by Apple and Android they didn't react quickly. People wanted a great web browser, apps, a responsive touch screen UI, etc. BB took a long time to deliver, and arguably still doesn't. They tried dumb ideas like a tablet that needed to be connected to a BB phone to work. And it didn't even have email when it released!
They have enough cash that a resurrection is possible, they aren't going to dissolve in the next year or so. But for that to happen upper management needs to realize that the market has passed them up and that they need to respond. I've seen no recognition of that from them. And as time goes on it will be harder and harder to catch up, as they'll be so far behind in app ecosystems that they'll be unable to capture new consumers.
So yeah, BB is a joke.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
No, they weren't. This was happening TWO YEARS AGO. At a meeting with TELECOMs. Telecoms want people to use more data, not less- they want to sell streaming video services, extra gigabytes, exclusive content, etc. Basically they were trying to push their phones by touting that their customers would make the telecom less money than other phones. It was ridiculous.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
No, Telecoms want users to PAY for more data and not use it because it saturates their networks. For someone who works in the industry you seem to know very little about it.
and you still didn't answer my question.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
BB was once the king of smartphones, and then Apple came out with something shiny and new and people jumped ship. Google came out with something shiny and new and people jumped ship
there's a really huge distinction here: customers actually jumped ship from BB to other companies - the number of BB users plunged dramatically. But nobody has "jumped ship" from apple or android - while the market share shifts, both companies have exploding customer base (obv there are people switching back and forth, but overall trends are sky high for both companies). so no, BB is not the same as iOS or Goog
Close your eyes and imagine its around 13 years ago. There are no smart phones and no SMS services. You have a magic device called a Blackberry that sends and recieves email.
You keep using this device for a while and it develops the ability to send short messages to other Blackberry users. You keep using this service, even as others get SMS and smartphones and the capability of BBM is essentially duplicated.
The only "advantage" this provides is a touchstone to long-time Blackberry users who don't understand that other phones have a short message system, chat apps, etc and who think they can't communicate with other Blackberry users withouth BBM. And maybe they can't.
AFAICT, the entire Blackberry universe still pretends its 1999 and carriers don't offer mobile IP service and the only way to send data wirelessly is with this cumbersome Canadian network.
The almost 1 billion people using Android and the nearly equal amount on iOS beg to disagree.
The total number of smartphone users worldwide is only around 1 billion.
Apple itself has not even passed the 350 millionth phone mark in it's total sales from day one. And that doesn't include how many people have went from the iPhone 3 to 4 to 5 now. Just total headset sales.
Android is hitting the 1 billion point inside of a few months. They're seeing 1.5M activations per day. 357M Android devices were shipped in 2012.
http://bgr.com/2012/09/12/android-cumulative-shipments-2013-1-billion-units/
http://news.yahoo.com/googles-schmidt-sees-1-billion-android-phones-9-162220903--sector.html
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I also asked about Android, which you completely neglected to answer. There's been heaps of devices from manufacturers that shipped with obsolete software, with upgrades never announced nor delivered.
How many of those are still in use? How's the battery holding up on 3 year old devices after daily charge cycles?
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