BBM release for iPhone & Android delayed?

BlackBerry has confirmed that it has aborted the rollout of BBM for Android and iPhone. BBM was scheduled to land on 21 and 22 of September for Android and iPhone respectively, but has now been delayed and the reason is said to be the leaked version of the application, which appeared online last week.

BBM is one of BlackBerry’s most valuable assets next to the company’s corporate email technology (BES), but the decision to bring the IM client to Android and iOS has been fraught with issues – the most recent being the news of BlackBerry’s potential sale Fairfax Financial. BBM will go into direct competition with services like WhatsApp on Apple and Google’s mobile platforms.

Interestingly, WhatsApp now boasts around 200 million users, according to The Telegraph, versus BBM’s 60 million. BlackBerry hasn’t discussed expected adoption rates thus far, but a look at the gross figures show that BBM has a long way to go before it catches up with WhatsApp. Still, 1 million downloads of the leaked APK is a pretty decent start.

 The leaked version of BBM was apparently downloaded 1.1 million times, according to reports. BBM did appear in the App Store in some regions, but the release has now been delayed. Users who did manage to download BBM via the App Store will still be able to use it, although BlackBerry has now disabled the leaked Android version.

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