Late last year Blackberry brought BBM for Android, albeit late, to devices running Android 4.0 and later, but with around 20% of Android users still running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) left out of the party, Blackberry has decided to let them in as well.
Blackberry have announced via their blog that they will be bringing BBM to Android devices running Gingerbread versions 2.3.3 upwards from February, although no date – just like the hugely delayed initial launch of BBM on Android and iOS – was specifically given. The company also announced that they will be moving to an external beta testing before the launch of the updated BBM for Android is released for users to download to their device.
Jeff Gadway, head of product and brand marketing did state that
Gingerbread represented about 21 per cent of the total Android platform. That’s a lot of Gingerbread! We’re looking forward to adding you all to our BBM contact list
Personally I do use BBM, but only to communicate with fellow work colleagues when out of the office, and it is effective if your colleagues are either BBM fans or so entrenched in the BBM eco-system the App or even (gulp) Blackberry devices still.
Have you downloaded the BBM app for Android? Do you currently use it or Would you consider downloading using it if your device is running Android Gingerbread version 2.3.3? What do you like about the app?
No surprise given that Blackberry handsets (and thus BBM) were still quite popular in emerging markets until recently, and Gingerbread handsets are still being used in these markets.