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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Screw SL" data-source="post: 14981454" data-attributes="member: 455444">BlackBerry Bringing BBM to iOS, Android               <img src="http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA1LzE0LzkzL0lNR18yMzkzXzEuNWM4OWUuanBnCnAJdGh1bWIJOTUweDUzNCMKZQlqcGc/eb8cd4e2/675/IMG_2393_1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <a href="http://mashable.com/people/christina/" target="_blank"><img src="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA1LzAxLzc3L2NtYWMuNzJjMTIuanBnCnAJdGh1bWIJOTB4OTAjCmUJanBn/8e30b071/28a/cmac.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />By Christina Warren23 hours ago</a><a href="http://mashable.com/people/christina/" target="_blank"></a>    ORLANDO, Fla. — BlackBerry has announced that it's bringing its BBM  chat platform to multiple platforms and devices this summer, including  iOS and Android. This move has been rumored for, literally, years, yet the  announcement still seemed to take the audience by surprise. BBM will  come to iOS 6 devices and will work on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich  and higher. The app will be free and bring cross-platform messaging  between BlackBerry, iOS and Android users. BBM has 60 million active monthly users — certainly nothing to sneeze  at — but in the years since it reigned supreme, the messaging space has  drastically changed. Apple's BBM copycat service iMessage boasts over  140 million users. Other services, including MessageMe, GroupMe and  Facebook Messenger boast equally large and growing users bases. And then there's <a href="http://mashable.com/category/whatsapp/" target="_blank">WhatsApp</a>. More than 10 billion  WhatsApp messages are sent each day and its user base is easily in the  hundreds of millions. The service is widely successful in emerging  markets — exactly the markets that BlackBerry cites as its core BBM user  base. WhatsApp is also on a ton of platforms — including Windows Phone,  Symbian and, yes, BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry will argue that BBM is more than just chat — it has  groups, the ability to send files and more — but, for users on other  platforms, that might be just a semantic difference. The proposition of bringing BBM to iOS and Android was something that  made sense — and was potentially disruptive — back in 2009 or even  2010. In 2013, the onus will be on BlackBerry — and, really, BBM users —  to convince other users to switch and use the app. At a press session after the announcement, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten  Heins said that he believed a core differentiator between BBM and  WhatsApp is that BBM is free. Of course, there are other free services  out there, including Facebook Messenger. Still, Heins has a point about  free being a potentially big driver in adoption. One area where BBM could improve its cross-platform experience is  around the idea of the PIN. Remembering and finding user PIN numbers can  be difficult. WhatsApp and iMessage are so successful in part because  these services employ a user's existing phone number. In the case of  iMessage, the experience is actually seamless with SMS, working in the  same application and the same way.  Regardless, the crowded messaging space just got a bit more crowded.  Let us know what you think about BBM coming to iOS and Android in the  comments.</blockquote>

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