In one of those rare Cumbaya moments in the wild-and-wooly wireless industry, Samsung wants all Apple, Android, and BlackBerry to join hands in messaging togetherness. Okay, moment’s over. Samsung, which is locked in a legal mud-wrestling match with Apple and eyes BlackBerry-maker RIM the way a hungry tiger looks at a wounded gazelle, plans to announce “ChatON”, a messaging service compatible with all major mobile handsets.
Like Apple’s iMessage planned for iOS 5 and RIM’s BlackBerry Messaging, ChatON will allow users to communicate one-on-one, or in a group. Along with voice messaging, the service, also available through Samsung’s Bada OS, will support photo and video sharing.
Samsung calls “ChatON” a “true global mobile communication service” available in 120 countries and 62 languages. If a cell phone isn’t available, the service is also available on the Web.
Although the messaging app doesn’t support HP’s webOS, Samsung is reportedly interesting in acquiring the software as a way to match Apple’s existing software and hardware ecosystem. HP recently announced it was giving up on webOS, changing its focus to business-oriented services.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
9 responses to “Samsung Gets its ChatOn with iOS, Android and BlackBerry Messaging”
Although Apple dominates most things, I wish they had acquired WebOS. I would love to be able to touch two iOS devices together to share stuff (although Bump and similar applications do it partially). I just wanted them to get it for the patents.
I don’t like the look of ChatON. It seems too much like SMS, whereas iMessage seems a bit more sophisticated.
i cant believe this!! me and my sister just got two i-pads for $42.77 each and a $50 amazon card for $9. the stores want to keep this a secret and they dont tell you. go here BIDSNEW .COM
Hold on for a bit… Apple has patented a superior method to ‘bumping’ devices, using a combination of physics and gestures. One example would be ‘pouring’ data or files from one iOS device to another (or a Mac), just as you would pour water from a jug into a glass. It’s very cool.
Anyone knows where the iOS version is ? I can’t seem to find it on the App Store.
HP has not announced that they were giving up on webOS. They said that they stopped selling the HP Touchpad and that webOS will be supported and developped in the future (we’ll see if that is true or not).