BlackBerry’s BBM To Come Pre-Installed on LG Phones

In a struggle to stay relevant as well as alive, BlackBerry is partnering with LG to include its BBM software on new Android devices instead of leaving users to install the app themselves. BBM may not be as big as some of the other messaging platforms that have been released for iOS and Android, but it is now one of the only things keeping BlackBerry afloat.

This announcement comes two months after BlackBerry first attempted to expand the BBM platform by making it available in the iOS and Android app stores. To no one's surprise, the app did see early success with more than 10 million downloads on its first day.

A Platform

Even though it is hard for a company like BlackBerry to survive off a single application, BBM has long been one of the most popular messaging services available and it found its success at the same time as Research In Motion was dominating the smartphone market. Due to its continued popularity, BBM's expansion is good for everyone and in particular, BlackBerry itself.

As a platform, BBM requires users. Unlike some of the messaging platforms which have become popular on Android and iOS, BBM messages can only be sent to other BBM users. This has made for a clean user experience but at the same time, a lack of users has made BBM an impractical application to use in all scenarios.

In some ways BBM is similar to Apple's iMessage, another proprietary message platform. Both of the services require a data connection, however iMessage is integrated into Messages which functions with non-iMessage users as well. Now that BBM is available on all major smartphone platforms and will also be built into LG phones, its user base will surely grow.

A Mini Social Network

BBM, despite being less popular than other messaging platforms, offers...