Amid dire financial results and an oddly-timed smartphone launch, BlackBerry’s big BBM for iPhone and Android launch seemed lost in a murky grey purgatory with little chance of escape with each passing minute its release was held up. The app made it to some lucky New Zealand and Australian App Store users, but BlackBerry halted the rollout when a leaked Android .apk set its servers on fire. Today, it finally provided an update on the state of the balked launch – sort of.
A tweet from the official BBM account (set up just prior to the planned cross-platform rollout) today reveals that BlackBerry is “[s]till 100% committed to bringing #BBM to Android and iPhone,” so presumably teams are still working to block users of the leaked .apk in order to bring sever load back to a manageable level before proceeding with the launch as planned.
Still 100% committed to bringing #BBM to Android and iPhone. Sign up at BBM.com to know when #BBM4All—
(@BBM) September 30, 2013
Not provided today was a timeline of when to expect the BBM for iPhone and Android launch. Last Monday, BlackBerry EVP of BBM Andrew Bocking said in an update that it didn’t anticipate being able to launch the app that week, but the only mention of when it might arrive instead we’ve had since is the repeated instruction to sign up at the BBM website for notifications.
BlackBerry Messenger creator Gary Klassen was quoted by The Mobile Indian as saying BBM would be coming to platforms beyond iOS and Android in the future, too, which has led to speculation that Windows Phone could be next in line. The Canadian smartphone maker also recently showed how BlackBerry 10 software could be extended to desktop environment, including Windows and Mac OS using a mirrored interface, and BBM is one possible application of that tech.
We’ve reached out to BlackBerry to see if they could provide additional information about BBM and the iOS and Android apps, and will update with any response.
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