That's strange, while that's a normal breakfast task for Apple, RIM's really not the company to do things like that, even if the app affected battery life and what not. Pretty sure there are some dirty things going on behind the scenes, maybe someone else can provide more insight.
I can only speculate on the reasoning, but Kik competes with BlackBerry Messenger, which is one of the key features that keeps Blackberry competitive in the smartphone market. Its exclusivity to Blackberry devices gives them some network-effect lock-in to the vendor and it is the best messaging system out there.
A lot of their marketing is focusing on how great BBM is and how buying a Blackberry gives you access to this exclusive network of people. BBM is also the source of all those issues in UAE and India where its so secure that governments were threatening to block Blackberry because they couldn't snoop on BBM messages. Basically, BBM is the killer app on Blackberry.
Kik would commoditize BBM across any platform allowing users to freely move between them. The literature for Kik itself describes it as a BBM for all platforms, and I can see how RIM would be concerned that they'd lose one of their few advantages in the smartphone market if Kik supplanted BBM. Again, not sure if this actually was the "behind the scenes" cause, but RIM would definitely have a motivation to kill Kik.
That sounds probable, but I don't think that's the whole story. First, every major IM provider is available on BlackBerrys (AIM, MSN, GoogleTalk, ICQ, WhatsApp...). Most of these clients are even co-written by RIM themselve and use the same BlackBery-PUSH service as BBM. Just take a look here: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/category/51?lang=en
Also they didn't just kick them out of the store, but revoked PUSH and signature keys, which is pretty a drastic move on their side. That makes me certain there is more to it.
> That sounds probable, but I don't think that's the whole story. First, every major IM provider is available on BlackBerrys
Other IMs are very, very crummy experiences compared to BBM between BB devices. Kik is the first one that may be able to compete with and replace BBM (if only because it took a lot of "inspiration" from BBM), which is a big danger for BB as BBM is the only strength they have in the consumer market (in the US a blackberry is a corp phone, but in Europe it's used a lot by high-texting-volume teenagers and young adults)
It's simple, secure, stable, allows for group chat, notifies you if the message was received or not, and is pre-installed on BlackBerries so everyone with a BlackBerry has it.
Secure? Stable? Could you elaborate? Are all messages encrypted? Are other applications so terrible now-a-days that "doesn't crash!" is a feature? Other than that, it sounds like IRC, with a read notification for those who just need to know if their message hasn't been read yet, or they're being ignored.
I was reading the page looking for grandparent's question, and I still don't see why bbm would be such a huge feature that bb owners just can't live without. Sure, I can see how it may beat sms where international communication may be concerned, and texting someone in a different country doesn't work, and I can see how the group chat is useful, but every single other IM client can offer the same thing... I just don't get it.
LandLandon, BBM is so popular for the reasons mentioned above. But the main reason is because it comes pre-installed with every blackberry - Just like Microsoft and Internet Explorer, you might as well ask the same question as to why Internet Explorer on windows is the most popular web browser in the world? when at the same time, it's the worst/most hated.
Ted Livingston worked for RIM and saw problem, a big gap that needed to be filled in. Which was, taking the best black berry app and making it accessible on every major smart phone out there.
The killer feature is that you know when the message was opened. With SMS/text-messaging you have no idea if it was received by anyone - since it might have been sent to a landline #.
It's interesting that in North America it was an intentional decision to make land and mobile #'s indistinguishable, yet we are now supposed to keep track. I'm probably a bit sloppy with my contact list, but still people forward calls to their mobiles or transfer numbers. I've definitely sent SMS messages to the wrong place before - also because people change their mobile numbers frequently.
Comments
That's strange, while that's a normal breakfast task for Apple, RIM's really not the company to do things like that, even if the app affected battery life and what not. Pretty sure there are some dirty things going on behind the scenes, maybe someone else can provide more insight.
I can only speculate on the reasoning, but Kik competes with BlackBerry Messenger, which is one of the key features that keeps Blackberry competitive in the smartphone market. Its exclusivity to Blackberry devices gives them some network-effect lock-in to the vendor and it is the best messaging system out there.
A lot of their marketing is focusing on how great BBM is and how buying a Blackberry gives you access to this exclusive network of people. BBM is also the source of all those issues in UAE and India where its so secure that governments were threatening to block Blackberry because they couldn't snoop on BBM messages. Basically, BBM is the killer app on Blackberry.
Kik would commoditize BBM across any platform allowing users to freely move between them. The literature for Kik itself describes it as a BBM for all platforms, and I can see how RIM would be concerned that they'd lose one of their few advantages in the smartphone market if Kik supplanted BBM. Again, not sure if this actually was the "behind the scenes" cause, but RIM would definitely have a motivation to kill Kik.
That sounds probable, but I don't think that's the whole story. First, every major IM provider is available on BlackBerrys (AIM, MSN, GoogleTalk, ICQ, WhatsApp...). Most of these clients are even co-written by RIM themselve and use the same BlackBery-PUSH service as BBM. Just take a look here: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/category/51?lang=en
Also they didn't just kick them out of the store, but revoked PUSH and signature keys, which is pretty a drastic move on their side. That makes me certain there is more to it.
> That sounds probable, but I don't think that's the whole story. First, every major IM provider is available on BlackBerrys
Other IMs are very, very crummy experiences compared to BBM between BB devices. Kik is the first one that may be able to compete with and replace BBM (if only because it took a lot of "inspiration" from BBM), which is a big danger for BB as BBM is the only strength they have in the consumer market (in the US a blackberry is a corp phone, but in Europe it's used a lot by high-texting-volume teenagers and young adults)
Can someone who has used BBM explain why it's so great?
It's simple, secure, stable, allows for group chat, notifies you if the message was received or not, and is pre-installed on BlackBerries so everyone with a BlackBerry has it.
Secure? Stable? Could you elaborate? Are all messages encrypted? Are other applications so terrible now-a-days that "doesn't crash!" is a feature? Other than that, it sounds like IRC, with a read notification for those who just need to know if their message hasn't been read yet, or they're being ignored.
I was reading the page looking for grandparent's question, and I still don't see why bbm would be such a huge feature that bb owners just can't live without. Sure, I can see how it may beat sms where international communication may be concerned, and texting someone in a different country doesn't work, and I can see how the group chat is useful, but every single other IM client can offer the same thing... I just don't get it.
LandLandon, BBM is so popular for the reasons mentioned above. But the main reason is because it comes pre-installed with every blackberry - Just like Microsoft and Internet Explorer, you might as well ask the same question as to why Internet Explorer on windows is the most popular web browser in the world? when at the same time, it's the worst/most hated.
Ted Livingston worked for RIM and saw problem, a big gap that needed to be filled in. Which was, taking the best black berry app and making it accessible on every major smart phone out there.
The killer feature is that you know when the message was opened. With SMS/text-messaging you have no idea if it was received by anyone - since it might have been sent to a landline #.
How many times do you mistakingly sms someone's landline, from your address book?
It's interesting that in North America it was an intentional decision to make land and mobile #'s indistinguishable, yet we are now supposed to keep track. I'm probably a bit sloppy with my contact list, but still people forward calls to their mobiles or transfer numbers. I've definitely sent SMS messages to the wrong place before - also because people change their mobile numbers frequently.