There was a time before iPhones, when BlackBerry was the go-to name when it came to high quality smartphones. Those days are now well and truly over, although BlackBerry is still on the lookout for ways to even the playing field.
In a new blogpost over on the official BlackBerry website, CEO John Chen argues for a net neutrality-style “app neutrality,” which would see Apple legally compelled to make its popular iMessage service for BB10 handsets.
“Unfortunately, not all content and applications providers have embraced openness and neutrality,” Chen writes. “Unlike BlackBerry, which allows iPhone users to download and use our BBM service, Apple does not allow BlackBerry or Android users to download Apple’s iMessage messaging service.”
As a result, other app-makers follow suit by creating apps only for iPhone or Android. “This dynamic has created a two-tiered wireless broadband ecosystem, in which iPhone and Android users can access far more content and applications than customers using devices running other operating systems,” Chen notes. “These are precisely the sort of discriminatory practices that neutrality advocates have criticized at the carrier level.”
It’s a passionately-made point, although the reality is that it will never happen. Despite its popularity, Apple shouldn’t have to make iMessage available for other platforms any more than it should have to help out competitors by sharing the company’s design secrets about current or future products.
The only reason BBM came to iOS was because it was a part of BlackBerry’s business that still had the potential to be profitable amidst declining handset sales. It was — with millions of downloads in the first few hours alone.
But how much of this would “app neutrality” would have happened were BlackBerry still running the show? Exactly our point!
Via: iMore
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
10 responses to “Apple should be forced to bring iMessage to BlackBerry, CEO claims”
tried using bbm…sucked…deleted it. these people have lost the plot!
These are the sort of comments that aren’t too well thought out. If an “app-neutrality” is introduced, then how deep down the rabbit hole do we go? Should Adobe be forced to build Photoshop for Linux? Who’s going to finance all of this?
While I respect BlackBerry’s CEO for what he did with Sybase, I believe he’s gone too far over the hill.
Yeah, when you’re trying to stay relevant you say stupid things like app neutrality. Seems not too long ago someone was saying something along the lines of iPhone not surviving past it’s first year. Funny how Karma comes back around huh Blackberry?
Couldn’t have said it any better!
Works fine on Blackberry. It’s called SMS and you can chat with any iMessage user seamlessly. Want all the encryption? Get an iPhone. The company that did the work, deserves the features. The ones that didn’t do @&$% can live on what’s available to everyone else.
If you’re wondering what the voice of desperation sounds like, there it is, right there.
“Apple should be forced to bring iMessage to BlackBerry, CEO claims”
“Should be forced…?” Laughable. CEO Chen might consider moving his operations to North Korea or Russia. They’re riper climates for making people and companies do things by force.
BBM is down and out. If Chen were on an iPhone, he would’ve gotten that iMessage.
Through this nonsense – i’ve become aware of imessage on android. How does that work?
It doesn’t.
What is BBM? Is this like 8-track tapes or something?
Yea, seems like a fair trade to me.