BBM coming to Windows phones later this year

NEW DELHI: After the debut of BBM on Apple and Android phones, Canadian firm BlackBerry is all set to extend the instant messaging service to Windows phones later this year as it seeks newer avenues for monetisation.

Once exclusive to BlackBerry devices, the company last year made BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) available on rival platforms of Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

BBM, which competes with other popular messaging services like WhatsApp, Line and WeChat, has about 85 million monthly users and around 113 million global registered users as of March 2014.

The strategic move by BlackBerry will enable it to provide an open and flexible mobile environment to its customers, analysts say.

It will also help the embattled Canadian smartphone maker add more users to BBM, a move that could enable BlackBerry check losses and fund its turnaround efforts, they add.

In February 2014, the Waterloo (Ontario)-headquartered firm had announced that BBM is coming to Windows Phone and Nokia X platforms in the coming months.

BlackBerry President (Global Enterprise Services) John Sims, in a blog post, recently said: "We've expanded our BES10 and BBM messaging platform to include iOS and Android and later this year, we will add Windows Phone."

Sims, who earlier headed SAP's mobile services and telecom, added that the firm aims to continue to provide customers increased flexibility and choice in their mobile device environments.

"We're making this strategic move to continue providing the most open and flexible mobile environments for our customers," he said.

BlackBerry has time and again reiterated that it "believes that a corresponding increase in the user base for the BBM service could lead to increased opportunities for monetisation of services offered through the platform, through advertising or through the implementation of solutions by enterprise customers."

BlackBerry has also launched an eBBM Suite to extend the reach of BBM userbase and as a strategy for monetising value of the BBM platform and its growing user population.