BlackBerry BBM used to be the most popular app, but several new services have appeared in the past few years that made competition much fiercer. However, this did not break the Canadian firm, and rather than surrendering, it chose to tackle the fight from an altogether different perspective.
BlackBerry adding Tizen OS support
The first step Blackberry took was to start monetizing BBM, and it focused on markets where a large percentage of customers were still loyal to it. Indonesia is one such country where BlackBerry devices are still the favorite, and for this reason, BBM is the preferred messaging app of 90% of smartphone users in the country.
Indonesia is an emerging market, so the bulk of smartphones sold in the country are entry-level or mid-range. This means Samsung devices running the Tizen OS should be hugely popular in Indonesia, according to Phone Arena. However, this is not the reality. Tizen smartphones are not that popular in Indonesia, with the main reason being that BBM for the Tizen OS doesn’t exist. This will change soon, as BBM CEO Matthew Talbot confirmed to the site Selular.ID that the messaging app will eventually make its way to Tizen devices.
“Tizen OS is not much different to the Android OS. So it’s not a difficult thing for an Android application developer, to create Tizen applications,” Talbot said.
He could not give an exact date for the release, but he did say that the launch will certainly take place. So it’s just a matter of time until it arrives.
BBM Travel coming to Indonesia
The Canadian firm also plans to launch BBM Travel in Indonesia, for which it is partnering with Reservasi. Using the BBM Travel service, Indonesians will be able to purchase airline tickets, book hotel rooms, get special deals and pay for all of it within the BBM app, according to Berry Reporter.
“With just a few tabs within the app, users can now access over 200,000 hotels worldwide and purchase domestic and international airline tickets,” the Canadian firm said.
This feature sounds very similar to BlackBerry’s Travel app and lines up with BBM Shopping, BBM Voucher and the recently released BBM Pulsa/PLN. BBM Checkout powers the BBM Travel app, so users know their payment information is secured. BBM Travel is available only in Indonesia currently. If or when it will make its way to other parts of the world is not known now.
Photo by vernieman
Photo by vernieman
