"i got a blackberry and all i got was this lousy messenger service"

Earlier today, Blackberry announced that BBM would be available for free on Android & iOS - this is a pretty big deal (or at least I think it is).

I see this as the first step towards the end of Blackberry as we know it.

It has been rumoured for a while that Blackberry would turn BBM cross-platform; but I didn't think they'd actually do it. I think there's no doubt that Blackberry are getting desperate to retain their customers - the whole 're-imaging' of the brand via the Blackberry Z10 & dropping the 'Research In Motion' title for 'Blackberry'. Not to mention that they literally paid Android developers to quickly port their apps over to Blackberry.

There was a time where Blackberry's were the top dog in the smartphone industry (hell, they're the original smart phone manufacturers); targeted at business environments due to the how secure it was. Since the iPhone, however - the smartphone has become a mass consumer point and frankly, Blackberry are falling behind as the alternatives have rocketed ahead. It appeared that Blackberry's one major selling point was the BBM service; exclusive to Blackberry's and from the people I've spoken to overtime was the one thing keeping people owning a Blackberry.

Since data messaging services such as Whatsapp, Kik & Facebook Messenger have emerged though; is it too late to save BBM? I see making it available on iPhones & Android as a move of desperation on the companies behalf to simply keep customers. If they're not buying their phones then at least they're using a Blackberry service, right? Right?

It might be a little too late, though. I think BBM was popular in it's prime but a lot of people have moved on. What I'd like to see in the Android version though; is unified messaging; similar to iMessage but with BBM and Google Chat integration  I don't think it'd happen - in reality it's just going to be yet another data messaging with Push notifications.

I think that the Z10 hardware is gorgeous, similar to the HTC One but a huge step up for Blackberry. The OS is pretty nice, but not quite there yet. If I had to make a bold prediction it would be that eventually Blackberry will go the way of Nokia & start focusing primarily on hardware (& software services?). Judging by the lack of Windows 8 BBM - I'd be sure they'd manufacture for Android.

In a sick way, it'd be nice to see Blackberry evolve and become legitimate competition in the smartphone wars again - however, I think they've missed their opportunity window. The Blackberry name has become an unreliable joke, meanwhile customers are sitting comfy in the world of iOS & Android.