Monday, September 23, 2013

Why BlackBerry stopped the launch of BBM for Android, iOS

Things aren’t going too well for BlackBerry. The company will announce it’s Q2 results this week and expects to post a $1 billion loss and is likely to cut 40 percent of its workforce.

On the product front, to call the cross-platform launch of its popular BlackBerry Messenger, (BBM) a disaster wouldn’t be amiss. BBM for Android was supposed to launch on 21 September and BBM for iOS was to be released on 22 September. But for BlackBerry both launches

As far as the Android app was concerned, ahead of the official release, a leaked apk file of BBM was out. The leaked file had over 1.1 million downloads in just eight hours. According to BBM’s blog, Consequently, this unreleased version caused issues, which we have attempted to address throughout the day. [1]

BBM's Twitter feed. Screengrab.

BBM’s Twitter feed. Screengrab.

BlackBerry has now disabled the unreleased app for Android. The company also halted the rollout of the iPhone app almost as soon as it was supposed to begin. The halt seems to have happened somewhere around the time when the India rollout was due to begin.

However iPhone users who had managed to download the BBM app will continue to be able to use the app.

The company also wrote,“Our teams continue to work around the clock to bring BBM to Android and iPhone, but only when it’s ready and we know it will live up to your expectations of BBM. We are pausing the global roll-out of BBM for Android and iPhone”.

What is however not making sense to many users is why the iOS app was pulled off if it was the Android app that was causing trouble. Some are hinting that the leaked apk [2] destroyed BlackBerry’s servers although the company has not confirmed any such thing.

The latest tweet from BBM’s official account didn’t provide any specific time-limit as to when the two apps will be launched. You can check out the tweets below.

 

Links
  1. ^ BBM’s blog (blogs.blackberry.com)
  2. ^ Some are hinting that the leaked apk (techcrunch.com)

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