Skip to main content

BlackBerry Was Asked 4 Years Ago To Tackle Whatsapp But Refused

Four years ago, a former employee of BlackBerry who is now the founder of Kik messaging app, Ted Livingston, told executives in BlackBerry to make BBM available to both Android and iPhone so that it can curb the strength Whatsapp is having on these devices but this advice went on deaf hears.


According to Ted, who worked for BlackBerry as an engineer while a mechatronics student at University of Waterloo persuaded BlackBerry executives to expand BBM to other platforms with the rise of Android and iOS and they absolutely refused.

He says he understands their point of view as people buy BlackBerry because of its BBM and releasing BBM to other platforms poses a serious risk.

Ted Livingston later left BlackBerry due to their hardheadedness  to create his own app known as Kik that was cross platform and became extremely popular. Kik has about 90 million users to date while BlackBerry has only 60 million users. This popularity made BlackBerry to sue Ted for patent infringement but was settled finally.

According to Ted, "BBM was the killer app and chat apps are still the killer apps of consumer smartphones, if RIM had spun BBM out of the company and let an independent company run with (as a cross platform service) it would be big enough to rival Facebook"

Of course, this gentle advice that BlackBerry disregarded is now been put into action and soon, BBm will go cross-platform

Like our Facebook Page and Follow on Twitter to know when BBM finally drops on Android and iOS
 
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 8, 2013 at 3:35 PM

    I still prefer what's app to BBM.

    ReplyDelete
  2. OlaryeankarhOctober 10, 2013 at 12:19 AM

    If only BlackBerry had paid heed to the advice back then... Well, who knows?

    Am I justified to say 'RIP BlackBerry' yet?

    ReplyDelete
  3. PhonegistOctober 10, 2013 at 12:28 AM

    Well, its not an immediate death but a slow one if something isn't done quickly especially on the pricing of blackberry phones

    ReplyDelete
  4. Engr CrownNovember 10, 2013 at 7:19 PM

    A good and competent IT blogger you are; Akin.
    One particular thing i dislike about 'Blackburial' is their nonchallant attitudes to customers'r reviews and complaints. For so many years they were stagnant in decisions to upgrade, ammend/correct various flaws and anomalies we all know with the phone. I usually refer to BB as a 'Hanging Machine.'
    Now that Blackberry finally awoke from RIM, things will definitely get rosier.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How To Root Tecno Phantom A (Tecno F7)

There are no limit to the possibilities one can achieve on a rooted Android device compared to one that isn't rooted. As you know, Rooting is to Androin as Jailbreak is to iOS. For those that don't know what rooting means, a little definition will suffice. Rooting basically means that you install a set of programs on your phone that gives you total control over your device. Total control means that you have the right to install any applications or even delete core applications that you don't want.  Simply put, you have administrative rights over your device, giving  you super user access, and of course, you can use DroidVPN to have free unlimited internet. The guide below shows how you can root Tecno Phantom A also known as Tecno F7 and its super easy to achieve. Don't forget to like us on Facebook. Requirements 1. Computer with internet connection 2. PdaNet+ V4.12 zipped file 3. eroot_v1.3.3 zipped file 4. USB to connect your device to the ...
182 comments
Read more

How To Unbrick Tecno F7 Smartphone

About a week ago, a friend rooted his Tecno Phantom A smartphone. He was so excited about the endless possibilities to customize his device so he kept installing a lot of applications that caught his attention unaware of the dangers some apps can create on rooted smartphones. Finally, he installed an application called Font Changer Lite and that was when it all happened. After installing this app, his phone attempted to reboot and instead of booting normally, the phone froze at the Tecno logo. It wasn’t going passed that state. He couldn’t boot into his phone. Practically, his phone was bricked and had to look for a way to unbrick and use his phone again. If you are presently in the same limbo state as described, please follow the instructions below step by step to fix your device. I recommend reading through first before actually starting the process. Kudos to Seunpayne of Nairaland for uploading his files for download and also giving instructions on the usage....
171 comments
Read more

Infinix Alpha Marvel (X502) Detailed Hands - On Review

We have spoken about the Infinix Alpha Marvel smartphone recently and now its officially available for purchase. its expected features were talked about which were not far at all from the real thing.  Today, we had an opportunity to lay our hands on the Infinix Alpha Marvel (X502) smartphone and it was splendid using the device.    The X502 didn't go too stray from the leaked specifications and we are giving you a hands - on review just after the break. The Infinix Alpha Marvel which we shall refer to as X502 from now on is a 5 inch touchscreen device with gorgeous screen display and comfortable feel to the hand. Even though it has an all metallic finish to it, its quite light in terms of weight compared to the Infinix X570 that was released about 2 months ago. On purchase, it comes bundled with a flip case along with the phone and its accessories. Dimension, weight and casing The X502 has a dimension of 147 x 72.1 x6.98 mm and a weight of 0.5...
95 comments
Read more