黑莓放弃最后的优势

    然而，本周黑莓却宣布，公司将在今年夏天以免费应用形式，将BBM向iOS和安卓用户开放，此举引发的混乱可想而知。黑莓竟然放弃其唯一一个真正有粘性的消费者导向功能，这似乎是非常奇怪的一个举动。在极客媒体中，有人称此举等于“投降”，而也有人认为，公司向其他移动社区开放，是非常有力的举措。

    此举更像是公司剥离了一个部门。BBM约有6,000万用户，在黑莓日渐衰退的消费者移动部门，BBM无疑最有前途。如果继续与整个部门捆绑在一起，最终也难逃一同沉没的命运。但如果让其自由发展，BBM或许能够以一个独立实体的形式存活下来——虽然机会很小，但总算还有希望。以什么样的形式存活下来呢？如果BBM能吸引足够多的iOS和安卓用户，其将成为公司非常可靠的广告平台——帮助黑莓进军移动广告市场。此外，其也可能成为希望监督员工通信的公司首选的消息应用。

    要将这些期望变成现实，黑莓必须征服已经饱和的短信应用市场。在这一市场，规模与位置至关重要。美国短信与数据方案的价格大幅下降，现在已经很难找到有人会单纯为了节省国内短信费而去使用短信应用。虽然其他国家的情况可能与美国不同，但目前市场上已经有WhatsApp、Viber和Skyper等短信应用。BBM的卖点之一是能够支持最多30人的群组聊天，WhatsApp和GroupMe同样能够做到。GroupMe目前在大学校园非常流行。目前大多数第三方短信应用均支持所有手机平台，因此它们已经积累了数以百万计的用户基础，遥遥领先BBM。而且，这些应用并不需要像BBM一样，必须有笨拙的识别码才能聊天；用户只需要将应用与手机联系人同步，找出已经下载应用的联系人便可以开始聊天。除非黑莓能推出其他更神奇的新功能，否则，其很难说服消费者转而使用BBM。

    不过，BBM确实有几项其他短信应用无法媲美的优势。首先，BBM在第三世界有庞大的用户基础，而第三世界是智能手机增长最快的市场。黑莓可以利用其规模来占领某个关键市场的短信应用领域，例如西非和印尼等。其次，BBM通过黑莓自有的专用全球数据网络收发信息，该网络对接收和发送的信息进行加密，因此被认为比通过其他数据网络发送的信息“更安全”。黑莓已向《财富》杂志（Fortune）确认，通过iOS与安卓版BBM应用发送的信息也将经由其服务器发送，因此与黑莓用户发送的BBM信息同样安全。

    黑莓的未来并不明朗，但很明显，公司认为，允许BBM在其自有平台之外发展可能带来的好处，足以弥补硬件设备销售的减少。这是一个很好的选择，因为虽然黑莓的旗舰手机Z10获得了科技发烧友的好评，但对于希望重新成为消费者手机市场主要力量之一的黑莓公司而言，Z10并不足以改变市场格局。但如果黑莓放弃竞争激烈的消费部门，依然可以隐居幕后，因为公司和政府仍依赖黑莓服务器来保证数据安全。因此，黑莓新管理团队开放BBM的目的，或许是为了帮助它摆脱安静死去的悲惨命运。（财富中文网）

    翻译：刘进龙/汪浩

    So imagine the confusion when Blackberry announced this week it was opening up BBM to both iOS and Android users through a free app that will be made available this summer. It seems odd that Blackberry would give up its only truly sticky consumer-focused feature. Some in the geek media called it "surrender," while others saw it as a great move by the company to open itself up to the rest of the mobile community.

    The move seems more akin to a company spinning off one of its divisions than anything else. BBM, with its 60 million users, is arguably the most buoyant thing in Blackberry's sinking consumer mobile division. If it remained attached to the ship it would surely drown. But allowed to roam free, BBM could possibly survive as a separate entity -- a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless. Survive as what? If BBM attracts enough iOS and Android users it could eventually become a sweet advertising portal for the company -- launching Blackberry as a player in the mobile advertising market. It could also possibly morph into a premier messaging app for companies who want to monitor employee communications.

    But in order for that to happen, Blackberry will need to overcome an already saturated messenger app market. Here, scale and location matter. Texting and data plan prices in the U.S. have dropped so low you will be hard pressed to find anyone using a messaging app just to save on domestic text messaging fees. That may not be the case in other countries, but there, people are already using messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype. BBM touts its ability to set up Group chats of up to 30 people, but WhatsApp can do that and so can GroupMe, which is all the rage on college campuses these days. Most of these third-party messaging apps on all mobile platforms so they are ahead of the game with hundreds of millions of users. Unlike BBM, these apps don't require clumsy "pin" numbers to talk with other people; rather they just sync up easily to your phone's contacts and seek out those who have already downloaded the app. Unless Blackberry introduces some amazing new features, it will be tough, if not impossible, to get people to switch to BBM.

    Nevertheless, BBM does have a couple things going for it that other messaging apps don't. First it has scale in the third world, which is the fastest growing market for smartphones. Blackberry could leverage its scale to totally dominate the messaging space in certain key markets, such as in West Africa and Indonesia. Secondly, BBMs are sent through Blackberry's own proprietary global data network, which encrypts incoming and outgoing messages and is thus considered "safer" than messages sent through other data networks. Blackberry has confirmed to Fortunethat BBMs sent through the iOS and Android apps will travel through its servers and thus will have the same security perks as BBM messages sent between Blackberry users.

    It is unclear what the future holds for Blackberry, but the company clearly feels that the potential benefits gained from allowing BBM to grow outside its own platform make up for any potential loss in handset sales. That's a good bet because while Blackberry's flagship phone, the Z10, has received praise from some tech geeks, it is hardly the game-changing product the company needed if it wanted to become a major player in the consumer handset market again. But even if Blackberry folds up its front-facing consumer division, it will remain a player behind the scenes as companies and governments remain dependent on Blackberry servers to keep their data safe. So by letting BBM go, Blackberry's new management may be saving it from a sad and quiet death.