Blackberry opens 'channels'; Also partners with Micromax, Spice and Zen

Blackberry enters the social networking side of things. The latest changes provides users with a twitter like micro messaging interface to interact with friends. The new move is considered to be the attempt of blackberry in monetizing the BBM.

The new change is named as channels which allows BBM users to follow their favorite products or celebrities with entities similar to hashtag. The company said its social network will be built into its BBM messaging service, which will be available first to BlackBerry users, and sooner will be preinstalled on some Android devices across Africa, India, Indonesia, Latin America and the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reports.

BlackBerry is reportedly partnering with a number of emerging-market smartphone manufacturers to have BBM preinstalled on their devices, the report added.

TOI reports that Blackberry will partner handset makers from India, like Micromax, Spice and Zen, other nations to pre-install the popular messaging app on their smartphones.

With the BBM app coming pre-installed, users can directly engage with other BBM users without having to download the app or incurring download charges.

"BBM will soon come preinstalled on a variety of Android-based smartphones from leading OEMs across Africa, India, Indonesia, Latin America and the Middle East," BlackBerry said in a statement.

BlackBerry is betting big on Channels to rake it additional revenue in the coming months. Brand owners, who will pay for using Channels, will get to connect with users and reach out to newer audiences in return new ones.

The Canadian firm has been facing stiff competition from other smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung as sales have declined over the past few months.

Source: TOI
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- Unknown Updated at: Thursday, November 28, 2013