BlackBerry (formerly Research in Motion) today announced that its coveted BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application will finally be available for other mobile platforms starting this summer.
At the company's BlackBerry Live 2013 conference, which is held in Orlando, Florida and spans three days, CEO Thorsten Heins took to the stage during the keynote and announced that it was time to "bring BBM to a greater audience, no matter what mobile device they carry."
According to Heins, the BBM app will be available for iOS 6 and above and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and above. When made available this summer, the app will only include text messaging, but will later offer voice and video.
While the porting of BBM to other platforms is a great idea, it's one that should have been implemented at least two years ago. In 2011, when RIM's marketshare began to free-fall and consumers started jumping ship to competing platforms, rumors began to swirl about BBM making its way to both the iPhone and Android handsets.
Since then, BlackBerry's marketshare has dwindled to around 5.4%. It wouldn't be surprising if all the people who wanted BBM on their non-BlackBerry handsets now have no need for the service because their friends no longer have a BlackBerry.
[via CrackBerry, The Verge]
