Blackberry has just confirmed in a blog post that it is planning to make its BBM application compatible with Gingerbread running devices. The Canadian-based Research In Motion Limited said that devices running version 2.3.3 or later will be able to join the bandwagon.
According to Gadway, head product and brand marketing for BBM, the firm will launch a open beta BBM app for Gingerbread devices sometime in February.
There’s no official words whether or not BBM for Gingerbread version will be limited to just the basics or if it will get the full range of features. One has to assume that there were technical hurdles that kept BlackBerry from supporting older devices, and future updates dealing with video calling and screen sharing will probably make supporting older models even more difficult.
If you’re wondering why BlackBerry would bother targeting Android 2.3 at all, the company points out that 21 percent of Android devices still run Gingerbread. Google has already stated that more than 1 billion Android devices have been activated, so BBM has the potential to reach more than 200 million users by supporting Android 2.3.
The company has provided no specific release date yet, but with beta testing already underway, the launch shouldn’t be very far but then given the Blackberry’s track record, we can’t be too optimistic.
Source: Blackberry
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