Blackberry EVP of BBM Explains Why the Android and iOS Version Has Been Delayed

It looks like when the unofficial BBM app for Android and iOS leaked it caused some pretty severe issues in the development chain. As it would turn out, Blackberry was indeed preparing for a lunch before they ran into a problem. You can read what exactly happened in the following statement from Android Bocking, EVP of Blackberry and BBM:

Hi Android and iPhone users,

This is Andrew Bocking, head of BBM at BlackBerry. As a follow up to our first blog post on Saturday, I want to take a moment to provide you with an update on the rollout of BBM on Android and iPhone.

Last week, an unreleased, older version of the BBM for Android app was posted on numerous file sharing sites. We were aware of an issue with this unreleased version of the BBM for Android app. This older version resulted in volumes of data traffic orders of magnitude higher than normal for each active user and impacted the system in abnormal ways. The version we were planning to release on Saturday addressed these issues, however we could not block users of the unreleased version if we went ahead with the launch.

We attempted to address the problems caused by the unreleased version throughout the day on Saturday, but as active users of the unreleased app neared a million – and accelerated – it became clear that the only way to address the issue was to pause the rollout for both Android and iPhone.

The team is now focused on adjusting the system to completely block this unreleased version of the Android app when we go live with the official BBM for Android app. We are also making sure that the system is reinforced to handle this kind of scenario in the future. While this may sound like a simple task – it’s not. This will take some time and I do not anticipate launching this week.

Thank you for your patience while we take the time needed to deliver the experience you expect from BBM. We will continue to provide you with updates here on InsideBlackBerry.com and through @BBM on Twitter. We will notify everyone who has pre-registered on BBM.com when BBM is available on Android and iPhone.

Andrew Bocking
EVP, BBM

It looks like BBM for Android and iOS won’t be rolling out anytime soon. The good news is that Blackberry is working on a way to block access to the service through the previously leaked builds. We can only hope that the process doesn’t take too long to complete, as the leak proved that many people are jonesin’ for a little BBM action.

Are you looking forward to the Blackberry Messenger release on Android and iOS? Do you own a Blackberry device, or are you just looking forward to using it on one of the third party platforms? What is the main reason you’re interested in checking out BBM?

We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions so feel free to share in the comments below! As always #BB10Believe people.