RIM kicks Kik off Blackberries: Revokes keys, disables push • Hacker News Board

Re: RIM kicks Kik off Blackberries: Revokes keys, disables push

#71

Post by mbesto » Wed, Nov 24, 2010, 11:09 AM UTC

wh-uws wrote: post #65

bebeastie wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends how you define 'stupid'. I see advertisements day in and day out for BBM. Not for RIM's latest phone, not for a new RIM app, but specifically for BBM. Why? Because RIM has realized that one of the only things keeping a large % of their user base around is BBM. Their OS is horrible, their devices are nothing special, but BBM is arguably the best mobile messaging product out there (so good that Kik pretty mu…

What exactly is so good about BBM? I've never owned or really spent much time using a blackberry because of the other reason's you've mentioned. "Their OS is horrible, their devices are nothing special." So what is it that users find so great about it? (Asking legitimately out of curiosity not sarcastically )

No joke, every BB person I've ever talked to lives and dies by their BBM and plastic keyboard.

Couple of reasons people like BBM so much (observation of BB friends):

1) You can see when someone is typing

2) It's very fast and feels like your talking with someone on gchat/aim/etc

3) Most BBM users are already "locked in" with eachother via BB PIN #'s. It would be like changing your phone number if you got off BB

4) A person in the US can BBM a person in the UK for free

Re: RIM kicks Kik off Blackberries: Revokes keys, disables push

#72

Post by Ennis » Wed, Nov 24, 2010, 3:34 PM UTC

nikster wrote: post #49

thought_alarm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lock-in argument doesn't hold much water. RIM already provides IM clients for Google Talk, Yahoo, and MSN, with pretty much the exact same UI and features as BBM. The quality of their Google Talk client is one of the things keeping me on BlackBerry.

None of these are especially created for mobile. Or aimed squarely at BBM with the same features. I had been thinking about creating BBM for other platforms simply because I'd like to have it on my iPhone.

How would you create a BBM client for other platforms? You wouldn't be able to authenticate with BB servers since you have no PIN.

Re: RIM kicks Kik off Blackberries: Revokes keys, disables push

#73

Post by nhooey » Wed, Nov 24, 2010, 3:49 PM UTC

thought_alarm wrote: post #47

bebeastie wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends how you define 'stupid'. I see advertisements day in and day out for BBM. Not for RIM's latest phone, not for a new RIM app, but specifically for BBM. Why? Because RIM has realized that one of the only things keeping a large % of their user base around is BBM. Their OS is horrible, their devices are nothing special, but BBM is arguably the best mobile messaging product out there (so good that Kik pretty mu…

The lock-in argument doesn't hold much water. RIM already provides IM clients for Google Talk, Yahoo, and MSN, with pretty much the exact same UI and features as BBM. The quality of their Google Talk client is one of the things keeping me on BlackBerry.

The Google Talk client is horrible. It wastes tons of CPU when it's loading up the contact list, and still uses a bunch just while idling. If you have it on all the time, it will eat your battery away such that a Blackberry 9700 with no other apps running won't last a full day. I tested this on my own device a while ago, it might have gotten better, but I doubt it.

Blackberry Messenger (BBM) also has a typing indicator, delivered and read indicators, and it's faster than anything else out there.

Also, the fact that it's only on mobile devices and not desktop computers means that you know your message will get delivered to someone's pocket instead of the computer they may have left on. An odd side effect of its lack of portability.

Re: RIM kicks Kik off Blackberries: Revokes keys, disables push

#74

Post by ni_nad » Thu, Nov 25, 2010, 11:11 AM UTC

mbesto wrote: post #71

wh-uws wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is so good about BBM? I've never owned or really spent much time using a blackberry because of the other reason's you've mentioned. "Their OS is horrible, their devices are nothing special." So what is it that users find so great about it? (Asking legitimately out of curiosity not sarcastically )

No joke, every BB person I've ever talked to lives and dies by their BBM and plastic keyboard. Couple of reasons people like BBM so much (observation of BB friends): 1) You can see when someone is typing 2) It's very fast and feels like your talking with someone on gchat/aim/etc 3) Most BBM users are already "locked in" with eachother via BB PIN #'s. It would be like changing your phone number if you got off BB 4) A…

Except for the plastic keyboard, I don't see any advantage. Use a decent Jabber client (I'm using Beem on Android) and you get all these features on gchat, with just your gmail address. Plus, figure out the priority thing right, and you can have all the messages delivered to the right client. GTalk broadcasts to all clients by default, but the better IM clients give you an option to send and receive.

Re: RIM kicks Kik off Blackberries: Revokes keys, disables push

#75

Post by falldowngoboom » Sat, Dec 04, 2010, 4:13 PM UTC

LordLandon wrote: post #64

falldowngoboom wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The killer feature is that you know when the message was opened. With SMS/text-messaging you have no idea if it was received by anyone - since it might have been sent to a landline #.

How many times do you mistakingly sms someone's landline, from your address book?

It's interesting that in North America it was an intentional decision to make land and mobile #'s indistinguishable, yet we are now supposed to keep track. I'm probably a bit sloppy with my contact list, but still people forward calls to their mobiles or transfer numbers. I've definitely sent SMS messages to the wrong place before - also because people change their mobile numbers frequently.