14 DAY TRIAL // One of the interesting details that BlackBerry has made official today during the conference call for its financial results for the fourth quarter of financial year 2014 was that the BlackBerry Messenger will arrive on desktops too.
At the moment, the messaging service is available only for owners of mobile devices out there, but that might change in the not too distant future.
The company has also unveiled that the service currently enjoys over 113 million registered users, with 85 million of them being active each month. However, it seems that this might not be enough if it wants to keep BBM competitive and relevant.
Although Android, BlackBerry, and iOS users are already enjoying the benefits of the service, BlackBerry needs to expand it further, otherwise it will fall far behind rivals such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, and others, which already reach more platforms.
With the aforementioned services already providing users with the possibility to stay connected with their friends on more platforms than just BlackBerry, Android, and iOS, BBM needs to make a similar step too.
The company also confirmed earlier this year that it would release BBM on Windows Phone shortly, and it seems that it wants to tap into the desktop market as well.
"We are certainly going to take a very serious look at putting BBM on the desktop," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said, a recent article on Reuters reads.
The application will be designed so as to enable users to start a conversation on their PCs and then continue it on a mobile device, courtesy of seamless syncing capabilities, he also unveiled.
Most probably, BlackBerry will also include voice and video calling capabilities in the software, along with support for BBM Channels, the same as it did in the mobile clients.
No specific info on when the service will be released on desktop has been provided as of now, but BlackBerry might offer further details on this in the coming months.
At the moment, BBM appears to be one of the few products from BlackBerry that is still going well, after the company has lost a great deal of market share in the smartphone segment, dropping well beneath rivals Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.
Moving forth, BlackBerry should ensure that the service remains a viable solution for as many users as possible through adding new features to it and expanding its availability.
What remains to be seen is whether BBM for desktop will arrive in due time to allow it to see the same high demand that it received on mobile devices.