iPhone 4 Super Thread: iOS 4.2 Released. Find my iPhone now free

[OilKiller]

Well, I did read your post of course. I see what you are saying, but I'm not sure that RIM wants to get BBM off of the BB like that because from all that I've read, it is one of the major reasons why people buy BB's. They would be shorting themselves that revenue and more sales that way. I just don't see it happening, but who knows.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Not sure I understand your answer. BBM is a free service for BB's. Regardless of how often you use it, there are never charges for going over on a data plan, etc. It is a free BB to BB service.

Of course, that is unless I've been misinformed.

Edit: It appears that the sales rep I was talking to did misinform me. My apologies. It appears you are correct. There are data charges that apply along with the BMM service. Damn. Oh well, guess it was too good to be true to be free right?

BBM uses so little data that it wont tax the data plan much at all. I think each message is only a few kb.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Well, I did read your post of course. I see what you are saying, but I'm not sure that RIM wants to get BBM off of the BB like that because from all that I've read, it is one of the major reasons why people buy BB's. They would be shorting themselves that revenue and more sales that way. I just don't see it happening, but who knows.

Except, that if you truly believe opening up BBM cross-platform would kill their hardware business, then that is even more compelling proof that they will have to open it up and pursue the software and services side harder.

Because what you are saying then is that the consumer sees no value in your hardware, only your software. So if someone else comes up with better software, they will see no value in your software OR your hardware. And then its game over.

Apple is in a unique position right now because their hardware AND their software are seen as valuable by consumers. RIM doesn’t have that luxury.

Furthermore, BBM isn’t all that special or innovative in the mobile messaging space (caveat - maybe only on my POS 8730, I don’t know). Any momentum it has is more, in my opinion, from the fact that BBM users had a couple year head start on people just now coming into the smartphone world.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Yeah blackberries are awesome. As I've said quite a few times on this site, I was a BB fan before the iPhone came out. I'd probably be using a Bold 9700 today.

Definitely buy a blackberry.

Man. You are such a RIM FANBOI!!!...wait. Hang on. Ballsilly must have kidnapped Fan and is using his CP account!!!

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Because what you are saying then is that the consumer sees no value in your hardware, only your software. So if someone else comes up with better software, they will see no value in your software OR your hardware. And then its game over.

No, what I'm saying is it is an exclusive selling feature for the BB and to give that to another platform would be a mistake most likely.

Key BB selling features: BBM, real keyboard, email. Obviously there are others, but BBM is a big one and it is exclusive. I believe it will stay that way.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

No, what I'm saying is it is an exclusive selling feature for the BB and to give that to another platform would be a mistake most likely.

Key BB selling features: BBM, real keyboard, email. Obviously there are others, but BBM is a big one and it is exclusive. I believe it will stay that way.

The value of BBM goes down a very tiny amount every single time another non-RIM smartphone is activated. It goes down even more every time that non-RIM smartphone turns out to belong to the friend/colleague/co-worker of a RIM user.

Exclusivity, left unchecked in RIM’s case, will kill them, unless they can find a way to become and remain the dominant smartphone platform.

Edit: I'm not suggesting that RIM has to do this overnight. That, I believe, would be disastrous, since so much of their business model is predicated on hardware sales. But the market is diversifying and fragmenting at an unparalleled rate, and what is "exclusive" today, could quickly become "niche" tomorrow. Niche is no way to run a big publicly traded company.

[Titan]

I have been using a bb for work for 4 years and have never even used bbm. weird.

[OilKiller]

Well sclitheroe,

I don't pretend to know RIM's plans by any means, but usually when you have a feature that is exclusive and something that gets people to buy your product, you tend to not let the other guys have it.

My step daughter and all her friends all bought BB's to talk via BBM. They might not have if they could have bought any phone to do that.

[Azure]

I think RIM would be better served releasing some pretty unique software/hardware next go around. That should provide real competition.

That being said, I would almost certainly want to pay for BBM if I could. I think millions of people would.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by Azure

That being said, I would almost certainly want to pay for BBM if I could. I think millions of people would.

Sure, but that is a completely different business model. Unless RIM wants to change what they do as a company, it would be unlikely IMO.

[Azure]

Question, if you have unlimited texting with the blackberry, why do you need BBM? You can send images and such with the unlimited texting at no cost too.

That part confuses me.

I have friends with BB and we text all the time. I can send them images at no cost with my Droid, cause I have the unlimited plan, but they can't send me pictures, because I don't have BBM, and it costs too much the other way. Apparently they still have unlimited texting.

And if you have unlimited texting, why would you want to use BBM? The way I understand it, BBM gives you a free, easy and fast way to send images and text messages. Which is what unlimited texting does for me too.

Granted I gotta pay $15/month for that feature, but don't a lot of BB users already have to pay for unlimited messaging considering they don't all text with BB users?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Sure, but that is a completely different business model. Unless RIM wants to change what they do as a company, it would be unlikely IMO.

I also think its unlikely for now.

RIM is a pretty awesome company, and I think they're perfectly capable of releasing a phone and operating system that does a pretty good job at competing with Apple and Android.

[OilKiller]

BBM is an ongoing conversation ala IM'ing basically. It's pretty instantaneous as well.

Also: A major difference between SMS and both BBM is that BBM messages charged as data while SMS is charged per message. Most people have unlimited data but not unlimited SMS, so you can save money by using BBM whenever possible. And BBM messages are unlimited in their length whereas SMS are limited to 160 characters per message.

[Azure]

Yeah, I've played around with it before. Don't get me wrong its an insanely cool feature, and like I mentioned earlier I would pay money for it.

But the thing is, both the iPhone and Android phones do the ongoing conversations with text messaging. Its like IM too, as you might know as you had the iPhone.

Which is why I ask what are the benefits of BBM if I have unlimited text messaging?

[OilKiller]

See above - my edit.

And "unlimited" text messaging is not really unlimited. I have unlimited with Rogers. It's actually 2500. My stepson has gone over this limit with an unlimited account and been charged.

[QuadCityImages]

Android also has Google Chat, which is an instant message client, and is free, and does everything BBM does, and allows you to chat with people on Google Chat on computers or whatever.

[Azure]

Well, my unlimited is unlimited.

The 2500 is an option though.

Interesting though. I don't know about the unlimited data though, but I do like the idea. Though I would have to buy a text messaging plan anyways cause I text with people that don't have BBs.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by QuadCityImages

Android also has Google Chat, which is an instant message client, and is free, and does everything BBM does, and allows you to chat with people on Google Chat on computers or whatever.

Yeah I use that a lot.

Or you can download a IM client for free, like Ebuddy, and chat that way too.

[OilKiller]

Originally Posted by Azure

Well, my unlimited is unlimited.

Check the fine print. There is no such thing as unlimited.

[QuadCityImages]

Originally Posted by OilKiller

Check the fine print. There is no such thing as unlimited.

Actually there is. I don't know about in Canada, but Verizon's smartphone data plan in the US is truly unlimited.