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BBM to go Cross Platform; Android & iOS versions coming this summer

It’s better late than never. BBM, short for Blackberry Messenger, is finally going to be a cross platform app with its Android and iOS versions expected to be released this summer. Blackberry might have taken a cue from Google, who provides full Google suite of apps on iOS and manages to mint some cool money from the data collected from iPhone users, at the same time luring them to switch to Android.

Yesterday i.e. March 14, Blackberry CEO Thorsten Heins announced that the BBM is going cross platform. He didn’t mention any specific date for the launch, but mentioned this year’s summer tentatively. “It’s time to bring BBM to a greater audience no matter what mobile device they carry. We shall start with messaging and groups, but we’ll bring voice, screen share, and of course, channels later on”, said Heins.

According to the Blackberry team, over 60 million of BBM users use the service to send about 10 billion messaged daily. These stats are somewhat similar to those of whatsapp, a cross platform messaging app, which also boasts of over 10 billion messages per day.

This move might backstab Blackberry too, because BBM has been a USP which forces many youngsters to go for a Blackberry instead of Android. So, someone who might be thinking of going for a Blackberry to stay in touch with his friends, who already own a Blackberry, might now opt for the more open Android platform. Let’s wait and watch.