NEW DELHI, Sept 19: Smartphone maker Blackberry today announced it will provide its popular chat application BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on Android operation system from September 21 and for iPhone users from September 22.
“BBM will be available as a free download for Android smartphones running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean (Android 4.0 and later version) beginning at 7 AM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) on September 21. BBM for iPhones running iOS 6 and iOS 7 will become available for each market on the App Store schedule of 12:01 AM local time on September 22,” BlackBerry said in a statement.
Android users in India will be able to download BBM from their Google Play Store on their phone from 4.30 pm onwards on same day.
As per market research and analyst firm IDC, over 5 million out of 6.1 million smartphones shipped to India in January to March 2013 period were Android phones. Apple’s iPhones constitute a very small number in Indian smartphone segment.
BBM, the first instant messaging application for phones, now has more than 60 million monthly active customers on BlackBerry alone, and majority use BBM an average of 90 minutes per day, the statement said.
BBM customers collectively send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps, it added.
Meanwhile, Indian mobile phone company Micromax said mobile messaging service application will come pre-loaded on new Micromax smartphones from the first week of October and existing users of its Canvas phones can download the BBM from the Google Play Store.
“Bringing one of the most popular mobile messaging services with BBM on our smartphones is yet another effort to expand our bouquet of messaging services for our consumers to connect and communicate seamlessly with their loved ones” Micromax CEO Deepak Mehrotra said. (PTI)
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