BlackBerry’s financial problems have been well-documented over the past few years, and as they continue to struggle, the leaders of the Canadian smartphone company are trying to figure out what the future holds. One option being considered: reorganization. With its focus on software, rather than hardware, the company could survive. The first steps toward that end may have already been taken. Earlier this year, BlackBerry announced that it would be offering its highly coveted BlackBerry Messenger to iOS and Android users by the end of summer. And although summer is long gone, BlackBerry is finally ready to release BBM this weekend to the other platforms. According to allthingsd.com:
“At long last, BlackBerry is making its popular messaging platform, BlackBerry Messenger, cross-platform. This weekend, the company will release BBM clients for the two rival mobile operating systems to which it has been losing market share for years. On Saturday, BlackBerry will ship BBM for Google’s Android; on Sunday, it will release a second client for Apple’s iOS.”
The move may be viewed as favorable to some who have long left BlackBerry’s platform, but may miss BBM. However, like most things BlackBerry, it’s a day late and a dollar short. Had the company pulled a move like this earlier, it may have lured more users back to their platform. As it stands, users have moved on to other messengers like WhatsApp and Kik, making this news marginal at best.
This move may also signal the last days of BlackBerry as a smartphone maker. Now that users have the ability to snag the most popular features on leading Android or iOS devices, there will be very few, if any, reasons for them to choose a BlackBerry device.
