Despite its recent acquisition, BlackBerry announced it will launch a desktop application in BBM BlackBerry Jam Asia 2013 this week. Unfortunately, the long-awaited implementation leaves much to be desired. BBM come to desktops, from Windows-based PCs. Since most major BlackBerry customers were customers of the company, these customers spend much time behind their desks. This version should have come way before. But even more surprising, the desktop application messaging service is horrible.
After installing the application, users will have to connect their phones to their computers, probably via Wi-Fi. If you're in a coffee shop and want to send a quick message from your laptop, you first have to find a way to connect the phone to the computer. Is the PlayBook nonsense again.
Messaging someone should be everywhere and effortlessly. You should not have to wonder if your phone is active to send a message from your computer. Some applications allow you to send text messages from your computer. But the point is that BBM is not SMS - is supposed to be better. Moreover, BBM messages pass BlackBerry servers, like
messages, I-Messages, WhatsApp messages etc, and these other services not redirect all your messages through your phone.
That's why BBM limited to one device at a time is a serious defect that should have been corrected. Many people have a phone, a tablet and a computer and want to use the same services on all three devices. In its current implementation, it is not possible without a dirty trick to BBM. Due to the limitations of multitasking, even iOS users sometimes need to restart the application to deliver messages desktop - that is, if the BlackBerry can fix their servers and actually launch BBM for iOS and Android.
No release date yet, and the company showed only the Windows version at the conference. WhatsApp does not have a desktop client, so you could say that the release of BBM is better than nothing. But BBM 2.0 desktop will have to be more than a simple interface that redirects messages to your phone. For now, it's just an empty shell.
Update: It turns out that a show on stage was made is a way to extend BlackBerry 10 on the desktop. Here is a statement from Chris Smith, Vice President, Handheld Application Platform & Tools BlackBerry:
"This was a demonstration that showed how applications can be projected from one BlackBerry 10 device to a Windows or Mac OS. In the demo, the power of BlackBerry 10 is used to detect the connection via WiFi or USB then adapt the user interface and mirror the content on the desktop monitor.
The concept of proof is used to show only one of the possibilities of mobile computing - "and to display integrated into the BlackBerry 10 platform that our developer community could exploit capabilities into their own applications.
No comments:
Post a Comment