RIM’s infamous Blackberry Messenger spotted running on Android?
In the midst of RIM’s crisis, we just received new images of what is believed to be RIM’s Blackberry Messenger service (better known as BBM) running on Android. The rumor has made its rounds throughout the web in the past, but RIM was quick to squash any notion and stated they had no such plans of making the RIM exclusive service available on other platforms. However that was prior to Thorsten Heins, RIM’s President and CEO, declared they are “undertaking a comprehensive review of strategic opportunities including partnerships and joint ventures, licensing, and other ways to leverage RIM’s assets and maximize value for our stakeholders.”
According to Techno Buffalo, BBM for Android, now at version 0.8.87 and still in beta, will somehow be included in RIM’s Blackberry Mobile Fusion service and is said to launch this year. In addition to it being available on Android, it will also be available brought over to iOS some point in time. Of course the actual date has not been mentioned.
Since this comes straight out of speculation ville, take this with a grain of salt. However, the thought of it being available cross-platform sounds juicy, we feel it would be in RIM’s disadvantage to offer such service as we believe it’s the only feature that is keeping users on the platform. If it becomes available on other platforms we expect the Blackberry market share to drop even more and eventually RIM’s Blackberry brand would be purely a service company only.
