Blackberry Phones

The best part of the BlackBerry OS just got a bit better, as RIM today announced the release of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) version 6. What’s more, the company plans to offer certain apps featuring BBM integration, so users can feed their texting addiction without having to close an app.

BBM-integrated apps include FourSquare, Score Mobile, Wikitude, and the Huffington Post app, along with a few more that can be found here in the BlackBerry App World. You’ll have to install BBM 6 to use any of the new apps. As more and more apps integrate BBM 6, users will then be able to share the content they love in real-time for free, whether its planning to check out a movie or chatting up the latest breaking news.

This should really be a boost to the App World in general now that users will be able to browse friends’ apps on their BBM profiles. But first RIM needs to court developers through what’s looking to be a rather tedious process. From a developer standpoint, you must first use the BBM Social Platform SDK to pull BBM into your app. It shouldn’t be too tough to convince developers into this since many will be adding a social element to their apps for the first time, or at the very least in a new way.

However, RIM is in the middle of a massive transition to the QNX platform, which means that developers who are spending extra time and manpower on hooking up BBM will have to go through the same process again in a few months. That is where RIM will struggle to grow the App World.

Look, people that know me know that I’ve been a BlackBerry fan from the beginning. The entire reason BGR was started was because I was breaking information on upcoming BlackBerry devices, mainly because I was obsessed with RIM and wanted to share that information. As we’ve all seen, however, RIM isn’t the market leader any longer. The company really isn’t innovating, and even worse, it’s not even competing with the titans of the smartphone space now: Google and Apple. All three companies have different product strategies, with Google and RIM being the most similar — they view devices as products, and features as check lists. Apple views devices as windows, and features as end-to-end experiences. Hit the break for the rest.

The real problem with RIM is that it hasn’t innovated for years. In that time, RIM’s entire product portfolio has been arguably lackluster, reduced to meaningless hardware upgrades and meaningless software upgrades. The company has tried to right its path by transitioning to QNX, an OS it purchased that will not only run the company’s tablets but smartphones as well in the next year to two. And the PlayBook by itself isn’t a bad product — but compared to the iPad, it’s a non-starter. RIM’s BlackBerry OS 7 (also known as BlackBerry OS 6.1, also known as the same OS as BlackBerry 6, also known as the same OS as BlackBerry OS 5, also known as the same OS as BlackBerry 4.7, also known as the same OS as BlackBerry 4.5, also known as the same OS as BlackBerry 4.3, also known as the same OS as BlackBerry 4.2, also known as the same OS as BlackBerry 4.0…) isn’t an overhaul, but just another stop-gap solution until QNX.

So the question now becomes: if a company that hasn’t shown any leadership in the smartphone space hasn’t caught up to where it needs to be today, then how will it ever catch up? As it stands, RIM offers decent hardware with borderline-terrible software. In the future, judging from the PlayBook, RIM will offer decent hardware with mediocre software.

A high-level source at RIM told me that co-CEO Mike Lazaridis’ biggest fear was Apple creating a BlackBerry Messenger competitor. Today, Apple introduced iMessage, an app and service that not only looks better than BlackBerry Messenger, but probably works better as well. RIM’s push email and corporate integration pitch is losing steam, and the company pretty much just got out-fruited. We exclusively reported the company was planning on launching an Android and then iPhone BlackBerry Messenger app, but that was supposed to be at least 3-4 months out for Android, and possibly a year for iOS.

I’m sad. Sad because RIM doesn’t get it — and I’m not sure it ever will get it — and sad because RIM had the opportunity to once again be that innovator that it was in the past. It’s still possible… but with each day, each press conference, and each product introduction from elsewhere in the tech community, that chance looks smaller and smaller.

You know what was the other thing Mike Lazaridis is scared of most from Apple? A hardware keyboard on an iPhone. Shit.

Things just got a little more heated in the RIM / Kik dispute: RIM’s now filed a Canadian patent infringement case against the company, just days after it pulled Kik Messenger from BlackBerry App World due to “breached contractual obligations.” We don’t have the complaint yet, so we’re not sure exactly what RIM’s patent covers, but it’s a fair bet to say it’s likely messaging-related — and it’s probably a safer bet to say that RIM doesn’t screw around when it comes to dealing with potential threats to BBM. You mess with the bull, you get the horns.

Update: The complaint is out now, and it’s a doozy — RIM says Kik founder Ted Livingston was a former RIM employee who worked on BBM. When he left RIM claims he joined the BlackBerry Alliance developer program to ostensibly develop a music sharing app, but wrote Kik Messenger instead, using what RIM claims is confidential information from the Alliance program. RIM’s also saying that Kik’s marketing steps on the BBM trademark. That’s a lot more than a simple patent issue, and it certainly explains why RIM reacted so violently to the app — we’ll see how Kik responds.

Looks as though the latest BlackBerry Messenger has just gone live. Through BlackBerry Beta Zone, RIM had released v5.0.1.32 but, the live links to the update are showing v5.0.1.38. You can hit the BlackBerry Messenger link  to download the latest version. BlackBerry App World however, is still not fully live as of yet although, it is showing so it’ll only be a short while. Let us know if ya find anything new.

For those of you participating in the BlackBerry Beta Zone, you’ll be pleased to know that version 5.0.1.32 has now been posted for download. If you are a Beta Zone user, just login to your account and grab it (If you’re signed up for the BBM program). Given the issues some users have been seeing with BlackBerry Messenger over the past week, this comes at a good time and hopefully for some users it may actually make things work a little better. No promises from me though. Hopefully, since Research In Motion has a big media push for BlackBerry Messenger they’ll soon roll this release out to everyone through BlackBerry App World. Let us know if ya see any changes or how it’s working for ya in the comments.

With Research In Motions semi new marketing push for BlackBerry Messenger, they have opened the doors a little to give us all a sneak peek at some statistics regarding how some folks have been using BlackBerry Messenger. The case scenario, World Cup 2010 this time around. Looking at the stats, a lot of people were making use of BlackBerry Messenger throughout the World Cup 2010 for sure.

Over the past month, RIM saw a clear correlation between BBM traffic and significant events during the World Cup as fans shared their delights and despairs in real time with friends and family during live match action.

For example, during a thrilling World Cup final between the Netherlands and Spain on Sunday at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, Spanish International and FC Barcelona Midfielder Andrés Iniesta scored the winning goal only three minutes before the end of extra-time, which as the lone goal of the match crowned Spain Champions of the tournament.  At the time of this exciting goal, that was viewed around the world, BlackBerry Messenger traffic increased immediately by 280% as virtual communities of fans shared their reactions through BBM.

Throughout the World Cup, there were several other notable moments that correlated with BBM traffic. Some of the most significant included:

* USA v England, June 12th (Match Day 2):  traffic spiked 35% globally at the time of the first goal, scored by England.
* Netherlands v Brazil, July 2nd (Match Day 20):  traffic jumped by 122% globally at the time of the second goal, scored by the Netherlands.
* Argentina v Germany, July 3rd (Match Day 21): traffic rose by 178% globally at the time of the 3rd German goal.

These numbers give us all a great look into how BBM was used. Certainly, Research In Motion has an awesome thing with BlackBerry Messenger. Now, I don’t want to take anything away from this but quite honestly, my BlackBerry Messenger hasn’t worked right in the past three days. Messages are not being delivered and if they are, they have been delayed. Some by mins, most by hours and according to my Twitter followers I’m not the only one with this issue. Yet, no information has been posted about that. Interesting this issue arises after the World Cup. Are you having issues with your BlackBerry Messenger currently? Let us know in the comments if you are folks.

It seems as though Research In Motion has stepped up their game a bit when it comes to uses and implementations of barcodes. As some of you know, you can add contacts and scan compatible barcodes with the latest BlackBerry Messenger. Research In Motion appears to be putting that offering to work for them by means of promotions and advertising. Free BlackBerry smartphones, free VIP sections at concerts and more. This could turn out to be quite the marketing effort, if it shows up on a larger scale. A interesting read from the CrackBerry forums tells the full details.

So yesterday I took the family to a Teeny bopper concert (Wham Bam) in Toronto. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, as most of the acts I didn’t like very much. I do listen to current music, but this wasn’t my thing.

Now, anyone that knows me, knows that I’m a HUGE BlackBerry fan-boy. I have converted many people from dumb-phones to BB’s, and enjoy the phones tremendously. I beta test for BB (beta zone) and always buy the newest handsets…my entire family has a BB, and many of my friends do as well.

So anyway, as we entered the amphitheater I noticed a BBM chat bubble about 20″x20′ that said “add me for better seats” and had a barcode to scan. I stopped, and scanned the barcode. My family turned back and asked me WTF I was doing We found our seats, and I had to run to the bathroom. On my way, I noticed another sign. Different message, different PIN and barcode. I scanned that one too. I was then on a mission to find any and all of these signs throughout the entire place. I found a total of 5 different PIN/barcodes (there were more signs, but only 5 PIN in total) and I added em all. I get back to the family, and tell my oldest son to add em all too.

About an hour later, these contacts add me and send me a message. Each message described a different “perk”. The idea was to add all the contacts, get them to add you to BBM, then track them down to win the prize.

The 5 stations I identified were:

1. Sunblock (show up, they give you a small bottle of sunblock. The venue was outside)
2. Battery swap (you give them your battery, they give you a fully charged one)
3. VIP pass (free food, free booze, swag bag)
4. Front row seats
5. Turns out to be VIP passes to a bar/after party

So, now I’m on a mission (Uber geek I know). I find the sunblock and battery girl, we chat, but they are VERY secretive. I manage to find the ticket girl. She hands me 2 tickets for the front row! SWEET! My son and wife find the VIP chick. They get 2 VIP passes and hit the food/bar. While in the VIP lounge, my son sees another poster. He scans that one. A few minutes later he gets a message from this PIN. He won a BlackBerry 9700! awesome!

So we put the kids in the front row seats (wife and I had no interest in them )
The wife and I went to the VIP and had some food and drink. All in all we had a great day. Got a ton of free stuff, and met some really cool BB people. I found this kind of thing very interesting. It was marketing, but only for BB people, as the average person doesn’t even know about barcode scanning etc. It was more of a rewards based system, for BB users. Never seen anything like it, but too cool!

And that is that folks. So, the next time if you are out. If you happen to see a BlackBerry barcode anywhere especially at events, you may wish to scan it. You could end up with some VIP stuff. Just, don’t blame me if it turns out to be nothing. Thanks to Mark_PPG for sending this stuff into us and posting in the forums.