11–20 of 75 posts
It wouldn't surprise me if all (FB, Apple, Twitter, now RIM) but one (Android) digital platform curation teams acted in the same way. Of course, it is their platform, their right.
Android can afford not to because Google have a different business model.
That's strange, while that's a normal breakfast task for Apple, RIM's really not the company to do things like that, even if the app affected battery life and what not. Pretty sure there are some dirty things going on behind the scenes, maybe someone else can provide more insight.
A lot of their marketing is focusing on how great BBM is and how buying a Blackberry gives you access to this exclusive network of people. BBM is also the source of all those issues in UAE and India where its so secure that governments were threatening to block Blackberry because they couldn't snoop on BBM messages. Basically, BBM is the killer app on Blackberry.
Kik would commoditize BBM across any platform allowing users to freely move between them. The literature for Kik itself describes it as a BBM for all platforms, and I can see how RIM would be concerned that they'd lose one of their few advantages in the smartphone market if Kik supplanted BBM. Again, not sure if this actually was the "behind the scenes" cause, but RIM would definitely have a motivation to kill Kik.
The Kik fairy tale never made sense. One of the guys behind the company was a PM at RIM, if I remember correctly. The entire UI of the app is a direct rip of BlackBerry Messenger. It was only a matter of time -- I wonder when RIM will sue them.
He was an intern.
That's strange, while that's a normal breakfast task for Apple, RIM's really not the company to do things like that, even if the app affected battery life and what not. Pretty sure there are some dirty things going on behind the scenes, maybe someone else can provide more insight.
I can only speculate on the reasoning, but Kik competes with BlackBerry Messenger, which is one of the key features that keeps Blackberry competitive in the smartphone market. Its exclusivity to Blackberry devices gives them some network-effect lock-in to the vendor and it is the best messaging system out there. A lot of their marketing is focusing on how great BBM is and how buying a Blackberry gives you access to t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can only speculate on the reasoning, but Kik competes with BlackBerry Messenger, which is one of the key features that keeps Blackberry competitive in the smartphone market. Its exclusivity to Blackberry devices gives them some network-effect lock-in to the vendor and it is the best messaging system out there. A lot of their marketing is focusing on how great BBM is and how buying a Blackberry gives you access to t…
Can someone who has used BBM explain why it's so great?
This is just painfully stupid. Finally an app on Blackberry actually garners some attention, and RIM kicks it off the market. For anyone who has ever bitched about Apple being draconian, this is just another example of what the mobile app world was like before the App Store. It really wasn't all unicorns and rainbows and happy developers skipping through the meadow. It was locked down and cost absurd amounts of money…
The ironic part is that Kik is a Canadian company also in Waterloo.
That's strange, while that's a normal breakfast task for Apple, RIM's really not the company to do things like that, even if the app affected battery life and what not. Pretty sure there are some dirty things going on behind the scenes, maybe someone else can provide more insight.
I can only speculate on the reasoning, but Kik competes with BlackBerry Messenger, which is one of the key features that keeps Blackberry competitive in the smartphone market. Its exclusivity to Blackberry devices gives them some network-effect lock-in to the vendor and it is the best messaging system out there. A lot of their marketing is focusing on how great BBM is and how buying a Blackberry gives you access to t…
Also they didn't just kick them out of the store, but revoked PUSH and signature keys, which is pretty a drastic move on their side. That makes me certain there is more to it.
The Kik fairy tale never made sense. One of the guys behind the company was a PM at RIM, if I remember correctly. The entire UI of the app is a direct rip of BlackBerry Messenger. It was only a matter of time -- I wonder when RIM will sue them.
Sue them for what? Are trade secrets involved? Are the bitmaps directly lifted from RIM property? Because there is no copyright protection for the general idea of an interface! Edit: Patent ≠ copyright, but nonetheless a patent suit would be interesting, damned weak, and unlikely to be resolved for years (IANAL)
This isn't actually true, you can patent interfaces. Notoriously, a TV channel guide which has a grid interface with channels and times represented as columns and rows is patented (originally by TVGuide, now owned by Rovi). Every Guide you see on a cable or satellite box in the US pays a licensing fee to Rovi.