BlackBerry Messenger for iOS and Android denied

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has denied a rumoured shift to rival smartphone platforms for its flagship BlackBerry Messenger service.

Following slowing sales of its handsets - originally designed for business users, but typically now the reserve of chat-hungry teenagers - in the face of the success of Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms, rumours pointed to work to port the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant-messaging service to the rival platforms.

                      

With BBM proving the jewel in Research in Motion's increasingly tarnished crown, it was a risky strategy: moving what is increasingly proving the single unique feature of BlackBerry handsets onto rival devices could severely cut into already slow handset sales, but would have the potential of giving RIM a significantly larger target market for a subscription-based messaging service.

It's a risk too far for RIM's board, however: the Wall Street Journal, chief executive Thorsten Heins has declared that RIM should be concentrating on its first-party offerings and not seeking licensing agreements for its technologies with third parties.

Quoting an anonymous source 'familiar with the matter', the WSJ claims that Heins would refuse to even contemplate the plan - despite his forerunners' Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie actively developing the idea. "It was not up for discussion", the source claimed.

Instead, RIM is to concentrate on its upcoming BlackBerry 10 software, a revamp of its increasingly outdated operating system which has seen the BlackBerry brand lose market share to the app-driven Android and iOS platforms.

From:http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/