I should start by saying pun intended. BlackBerry has announced that their instant messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) will be available on Apple’s iPhone and Google Android in a few months. On the face of it, making a service available on multiple platforms is a good move as it ensures cross-compatibility and helps to grow its user base. There is however an exception to every rule and in this case, I think Blackberry is that exception.
BBM is BB's bread
and butter (alliteration intended). Sure many people buy their phones but this
is because it is the only way to access BBM by way of a Blackberry Internet
Subscription (BIS) and Blackberry realises a lot of revenue from these
subscriptions. And it is important to note that their phones are of reduced
functionality without a subscription. Features like the built-in email client
will not work without it. Despite these niggles, many still find BBM as the
preferred way to communicate. Indeed, BBM and BB phones boast one of the most
secure instant messaging platforms available. So secure that the governments of
countries like the UK and Saudi Arabia have had to strong-arm the company into
providing them with backdoor access to the service for security and
intelligence purposes. I am doubtful though if the secure nature of the service
ranks high on the list of requirements of many of their casual users. So, the
announced cross-platform availability raises three important questions: will
the secure nature of the BBM platform migrate/be enjoyed on iPhones and Android
devices? What subscription model will be employed for iOS and Android users?
And three, is this a good move for Blackberry as a company?
The Dynamics
Whether the secure
nature of BBM on BB phones will be existent on iPhones and Android devices is
anyone’s guess. But I reckon it won’t matter much.
The subscription
model BlackBerry will use has far more importance. Will it be free? Very
unlikely considering that they make a lot of revenue from BISs but then again, they
could make it free by including ads. If they do decide to charge for it, how
much will they charge considering that the other rival platforms are free. Even
the $1/year subscription fee for WhatsApp is a token fee at best. I still like
to think of it as free. And if they do charge for it, it will be seen as an
additional burden expense for users who have already subscribed to a
data plan. In the case of BB phones, the BIS is the data plan.
The question of
whether it’s a good move for the company is almost impossible to determine before
the rollout. Whatever the case, it seems to be a double-edged sword. On one hand,
the move will certainly get BBM more users. How long those users stay depends on
if the service is free or not. If it isn’t free, I suspect not many iPhone and
Android users will bother to give it a try.
On the other hand, the move could
hurt BlackBerry’s phone sales in no small way. This is because many BlackBerry
owners own them for one reason: access to BBM. If they can get this access
elsewhere, many of them won’t buy a Blackberry. The only ones who might still
buy are those who want a phone with a hardware QWERTY keyboard. – there are not
many of those in the Android world. But even this presents its own sets of
conundrums for the company. The hardware capabilities of their budget phones
like the Curve 9220 and 9330 are way below those of comparatively priced budget
Android phones. Another possibility is that owners of BlackBerry phones might
just ditch their phones and migrate to an Android phone or iPhone.
Another certainty
amidst all the uncertainty is that iPhone and Android users of BBM are unlikely
to ditch their iPhones and Androids for a BlackBerry phone. The company looks
set to lose in the handset business as a result of going cross-platform with
BBM.
Partial
Cross-Platform Availability
You might have observed
that I have been referring to the iPhone and not iOS. This is because there
will be no BBM app for the iPad. The lack of BBM on the Playbook was one of its
major sore points for BlackBerry fans. I do not know why they have chosen to
repeat a previous mistake. More importantly, they have refused to provide a
client for the PC. This kind of insular approach is what has brought many companies
down. To be fair, BlackBerry is not the only guilty party here; WhatsApp is
also culpable. What these parties need to understand is that convergence is
key. Though they serve the mobile market, they should be aware that there are
forma factors and devices used for computing and as such, they should ensure
convenience for their users. At least, Viber seems to have gotten the message.
The Naija
Perpective
The Nigerian mobile
market has proven to be something of a phenomenon. While BlackBerry (and
effectively, BBM) has witnessed considerable loss of users/subscribers in many
countries in the past two years, the platform has enjoyed astounding success
here in Nigeria. Though I have no formal statistics to mention, I can tell you
that there is at least one BlackBerry user in every household. The reason for
this is a bit antithetical. It is a reflection of the idiosyncrasies of the
Nigerian mobile landscape where owning a BlackBerry is mostly perceived as
being a high-powered individual. Of course, there are other overt ways of
showing this but brandishing a BB is often seen as the first step towards
becoming part of the jet set. As you can expect, proponents and subscribers of
this view do not admit it. They justify their lust for BBs by saying that BBM
is one of the cheapest ways to communicate. I wonder if they’ve heard of
WhatsApp. But I digress.
I wonder how these
people will feel when BBM becomes available on Android. Will they stick to
their BB phones, or will they switch to an Android phone or iPhone? Maybe they’ll
even dump BBM altogether. The same questions apply to other BBM users in the
world. Seeing as BlackBerry makes a lot of money from BIS, I just can’t see how
making the service free will benefit them. Perhaps they want to partake in the game of big numbers; they want to be able to brag
that BBM has x millions of users. Only
one thing is for certain: BB phone sales will be negatively impacted. Another
dynamic is the fickle nature of us humans. Other than that, I can’t call it. Anything
could happen. We’ll have to wait and see.
No comments:
Post a Comment