App for those with BBM withdrawl?

[mad_eyes]

You want to be connected with the world so you choose to use a native client peculiar only to Blackberries? Colour me confused.

I would rather use a 3rd party app that can connect Blackberries, Android devices, and iPhones. That's a larger slice of the world, I believe.

And WhatsApp will share Photo, Video, Audio notes, Contacts and Location. File transfer? Use email. You're still way ahead here.

another flaw is that ur thinking strictly in terms of the domestic united states. people in asia, europe, south america, etc. will all use different 3rd party messengers. US has a population of 300 MILLION. china has a population of 1.3 BILLION people and is one of the largest physical lands in the world. no way in hell they all use the same messenger. it will differ region to region. so are u telling me i now have to go purchase 5 different messengers just to communicate with all my chinese contacts?

sorry but there's no denying simpleness and security when it comes to bbm.

 

[Alli]

I use WhatsApp internationally - that is part of my point. If you look at the conversations currently sitting in my WhatsApp inbox, only 2 of the 6 correspondents are in the US. Of the 6, 3 use iPhones, 2 Androids, 1 BB. Curiously, the BB is in the UK.

Maybe you meant to quote someone else, mad_eyes.

 

[mad_eyes]

I use WhatsApp internationally - that is part of my point. If you look at the conversations currently sitting in my WhatsApp inbox, only 2 of the 6 correspondents are in the US. Of the 6, 3 use iPhones, 2 Androids, 1 BB. Curiously, the BB is in the UK.

Maybe you meant to quote someone else, mad_eyes.

and all 6 probably reside in a western english speaking country. if u only have 6 whatsapp contacts then that shows how little it's used. i have around 40 bbm contacts, maybe 25-30 global contacts, and i wouldn't say that's a significant number by any means.

if my korean contacts have whatsapp, it's only to communicate with westerners. otherwise they use a korean 3rd party messenger.

all my mainland chinese contacts don't even know what whatsapp is. china, hong kong, taiwan, macau, & singapore all use different 3rd party messengers despite being so close in proximity and all speaking the same language. likewise i'm sure there's a german version, russian version, french version, etc.

look the whole world could communicate through skype, msn, aim, whatever, but it doesn't. china uses qq, hk uses msn, phillipines is on yahoo, us is on aim, etc. different regions take to different products.

i understand the point u are trying to make. ur saying the potential of whatsapp, because of multi-platform, is huge. i agree completely. however, it's not just "oh make a chinese version of whatsapp and it'll be a hit". what poses a problem for all these 3rd party messengers is how each region takes to the product. plus, what good to americans is not the same for every culture. tudou & youtube are perfect examples, look at the user interface of both sites, they're completely different. chinese like busy, lots of stuff happening, cutesy figures all around. americans like clean, organized, nothing popping in my face, and built for efficiency. americans would typically find chinese sites confusing, tacky, distracting, etc. chinese would find american sites boring, mundane, uninspiring, etc. language, visual design, government blocking, political favoritism, etc. will always be an issue.

maybe ur saying that's not fair or right for government interference or promotion of a certain product. well boo hoo that's the reality of the global economy. countries would rather support a domestic product than a foreign one. china basically slapped around google to the point they pulled out of china completely. think about that. google is a huge multinational corporation and china essentially told them my way or the highway and threw up the middle finger.

can u tell i'm into economic discussions much?

 

[Alli]

May I recommend you switch to decaf?

 

[zkyevolved]

Lol. I use a lot of different messengers. Mostly Gtalk as all phone have an app for it.

Bbm is a great product. I had well over a hundred contacts with whom I talked. The most important people installed Gtalk or whatsapp. I enjoy Gtalk more than bbm but bbm is better built.

We all use different apps. Oh well. Personally I dislike whatsapp for the iPhone. I use it to answer ims about once every 3 days. Its not very well built in my humble opinion. Haha.

 

[mad_eyes]

May I recommend you switch to decaf?

haha my apologies for the long post, but i'm trying to get people to think out of the box and think with a multi-cultural perspective. it's a very american attitude to think "it works for us why not them".

decaf u say? heresy!

Lol. I use a lot of different messengers. Mostly Gtalk as all phone have an app for it.

Bbm is a great product. I had well over a hundred contacts with whom I talked. The most important people installed Gtalk or whatsapp. I enjoy Gtalk more than bbm but bbm is better built.

We all use different apps. Oh well. Personally I dislike whatsapp for the iPhone. I use it to answer ims about once every 3 days. Its not very well built in my humble opinion. Haha.

agree that it's a great product, but like we discussed earlier, there's definite pros & cons to being a native, exclusive product.

never intended to drag this thread out this long. i basically just wanted people to understand why unlimited texting is not bbm, why whatsapp is not bbm, and why u can't just translate whatsapp in language X and automatically assume it will be a success.

 

[Alli]

haha my apologies for the long post, but i'm trying to get people to think out of the box and think with a multi-cultural perspective. it's a very american attitude to think "it works for us why not them".

Speaking of thinking out of the box...what makes you think I'm a native English speaking American?

 

[Brickman]

Speaking of thinking out of the box...what makes you think I'm a native English speaking American?

Because you are from Alabama!!....That kinda English.

 

[Alli]

Ahhhh, but I'm not from here. I live here now, but I am absolutely not from here.

 

[mad_eyes]

1) alabackwards, which btw i got a good chuckle from

2) the idealistic view of whatsapp. it's like communism, in theory it works, in practice, not so much. regardless of whether ur an american or not, the "what's good for us is good for them" view is still held by many western nations. cultural similarities between the western nations is why this works in the west. there are huge cultural discrepancies between china, japan, hong kong, taiwan, korea, vietnam, philippines, etc. that prevent a product transplant from one region to another.

3) only americans drink decaf and the foreigners that do didn't start until they came to america

 

[Alli]

So you would be extremely surprised to hear I came to the US from Taiwan in 1973?

I don't drink decaf, I just like recommending it to people who are "excited."

I would be surprised if anyone from Alabama called it Alabackwards. It's not exactly flattering. Kind of like a former colleague who referred to this area as the "shallow" south instead of the deep south.

 

[jairo1daywrk4apple]

KIK is amazing its what me and all my friends use

 

[mad_eyes]

So you would be extremely surprised to hear I came to the US from Taiwan in 1973?

I don't drink decaf, I just like recommending it to people who are "excited."

I would be surprised if anyone from Alabama called it Alabackwards. It's not exactly flattering. Kind of like a former colleague who referred to this area as the "shallow" south instead of the deep south.

i'd say that's great that you had an opportunity to live in a country besides the US. i have many friends who are afraid to go to another country, especially one that doesn't speak english. personally i feel the best part about traveling is trying to figure everything out with the language barrier. if students study abroad, personally i feel they "lose out" by just choosing a country that speaks the same language as their home country. so much about culture is embedded in language and u lose that factor by traveling to a similar location.

my next question would be how much do u actually remember about taiwan and how long did u stay there? if u left in 73, then ur view of that region is obviously going to differ from someone who witnessed that region boom. consumer demographics now are much different than 1973.

how in depth do u understand the different cultures between taiwan, hk, macau, china (basically greater china)? do u understand why people from taiwan & hk look down upon chinese products and visa versa? they can all speak the same language. they're all chinese. written language is virtually the same. i'm not going to answer this question, as it's somewhat controversial, but if u know why then u would understand why whatsapp is not a simple plug & play.

in the longrun, it may be better, but in the short run and foreseeable future a native application like bbm is better for global communication.

lastly, i don't think any higher or lower of people from the south or any other region. u can go to CA and meet some of the nicest people in the world and some of the biggest a-holes. NY, TX, AL, OK, etc. are all the same idea. what i do love about the south in general though is sweet tea. yum yum yum.

 

[Alli]

Yes to all the questions because I'm old. I try to travel frequently, and rarely go to English speaking countries (I am a teacher of LOTE). Even when I go to Canada, I stay out of the west.

My goodness, but we have gotten off topic!

 

[twinmomma416]

As a former BB user and abuser, and BBM fan, Whatsapp is the closest and best app out there that mirrors the BBM functionality. It tells you when messages are delivered, tells you when the other person is typing (something MOST of the IM apps out there are missing) and is truly "real time". CnEcted is HORRIBLE, I'd rather text over SMS.

 

[328iGuy]

As a former BB user and abuser, and BBM fan, Whatsapp is the closest and best app out there that mirrors the BBM functionality. It tells you when messages are delivered, tells you when the other person is typing (something MOST of the IM apps out there are missing) and is truly "real time". CnEcted is HORRIBLE, I'd rather text over SMS.

I tested this for quite some time, and much prefer Kik Messenger as it has all the same features as well and I feel is more stable.

 

[Alli]

There's another player in the game now, IGotChat. So far, it seems quite nice as well.

 

[Brickman]

I tested this for quite some time, and much prefer Kik Messenger as it has all the same features as well and I feel is more stable.

Kik is very nice and I have been using it a good bit. The two problems is has for now, until an update comes along, is that it does not send Pics or Video like WA or others and it does not play nice with BB (or vice-versa. Not sure what the prob is there??)

 

[ctt1wbw]

KiK is no longer on the Blackberry store due to strange reasons.