Earlier in the month, we reported that BlackBerry‘s messaging service, BBM, would be available on Samsung Galaxy smartphones across Africa, soon.
And now, it seems the much anticipated (and sometimes criticized) release of BBM for Android is imminent.
While both Samsung and BlackBerry have jointly been promoting the cross-over to Android since the beginning of the month, the promotion and advertising has picked up a notch.
The first wave of advertisements have been released and are cheekily made in a “˜teaser‘ kind of way.
CrackBerry, a tongue-in-cheek website dedicated to providing news, updates, guides and forums for BlackBerry “˜users and abusers‘, have gotten their hands on a video advertisement from Samsung Ghana.
The video, which promotes the cross-over to Android, contains no sound or even a confirmed launch date. What it does show, however, is that the efforts in the promotion of BBM for Android are picking up fast.
According to some CrackBerry readers, the ad has been shown at football matches and other public events – an obvious attempt at wide-spread publicity.
The fact that the BBM for Android app will launch in parts of Africa first, is a testament to continued, wide-spread use of BlackBerries in Africa.
Also, BlackBerry and BBM offer a service called “˜BBM Money‘, a money transfer and payments service that was first piloted in Indonesia in 2012.
With all the emerging markets in Africa, BBM Money could potentially have great benefits to these markets.
It is not only in Africa where BlackBerry still dominates the smartphone market. In many countries across the world, BlackBerry and subsequently BBM are both the forerunners in this market.
And that is why BBM for Android would appeal to the masses as it will allow Samsung smartphone owners to connect with their friends and family using BBM.
However, in Asia and Western countries, the appeal might not be as significant with previous BlackBerry users, in these more tech-savvy markets, having moved over to other platforms.
It is not only the Android user that will get to experience BBM. The messaging service is also set to launch on iOS for iPhone users, as well as other Android devices.
Why then the advertising partnership with Samsung? Simply because Samsung has a mega marketing budget, so the ailing BlackBerry won‘t have to carry the costs by their lonesome.
Whether the cross-over from BlackBerry to Android will pay off in the end, is something only time will tell.
Unfortunately the video has since been removed by the user.
Source: The Next Web
