????然而，本周黑莓卻宣布，公司將在今年夏天以免費應用形式，將BBM向iOS和安卓用戶開放，此舉引發的混亂可想而知。黑莓竟然放棄其唯一一個真正有粘性的消費者導向功能，這似乎是非常奇怪的一個舉動。在極客媒體中，有人稱此舉等于“投降”，而也有人認為，公司向其他移動社區開放，是非常有力的舉措。

????此舉更像是公司剝離了一個部門。BBM約有6,000萬用戶，在黑莓日漸衰退的消費者移動部門，BBM無疑最有前途。如果繼續與整個部門捆綁在一起，最終也難逃一同沉沒的命運。但如果讓其自由發展，BBM或許能夠以一個獨立實體的形式存活下來——雖然機會很小，但總算還有希望。以什么樣的形式存活下來呢？如果BBM能吸引足夠多的iOS和安卓用戶，其將成為公司非常可靠的廣告平臺——幫助黑莓進軍移動廣告市場。此外，其也可能成為希望監督員工通信的公司首選的消息應用。

????要將這些期望變成現實，黑莓必須征服已經飽和的短信應用市場。在這一市場，規模與位置至關重要。美國短信與數據方案的價格大幅下降，現在已經很難找到有人會單純為了節省國內短信費而去使用短信應用。雖然其他國家的情況可能與美國不同，但目前市場上已經有WhatsApp、Viber和Skyper等短信應用。BBM的賣點之一是能夠支持最多30人的群組聊天，WhatsApp和GroupMe同樣能夠做到。GroupMe目前在大學校園非常流行。目前大多數第三方短信應用均支持所有手機平臺，因此它們已經積累了數以百萬計的用戶基礎，遙遙領先BBM。而且，這些應用并不需要像BBM一樣，必須有笨拙的識別碼才能聊天；用戶只需要將應用與手機聯系人同步，找出已經下載應用的聯系人便可以開始聊天。除非黑莓能推出其他更神奇的新功能，否則，其很難說服消費者轉而使用BBM。

????不過，BBM確實有幾項其他短信應用無法媲美的優勢。首先，BBM在第三世界有龐大的用戶基礎，而第三世界是智能手機增長最快的市場。黑莓可以利用其規模來占領某個關鍵市場的短信應用領域，例如西非和印尼等。其次，BBM通過黑莓自有的專用全球數據網絡收發信息，該網絡對接收和發送的信息進行加密，因此被認為比通過其他數據網絡發送的信息“更安全”。黑莓已向《財富》雜志（Fortune）確認，通過iOS與安卓版BBM應用發送的信息也將經由其服務器發送，因此與黑莓用戶發送的BBM信息同樣安全。

????黑莓的未來并不明朗，但很明顯，公司認為，允許BBM在其自有平臺之外發展可能帶來的好處，足以彌補硬件設備銷售的減少。這是一個很好的選擇，因為雖然黑莓的旗艦手機Z10獲得了科技發燒友的好評，但對于希望重新成為消費者手機市場主要力量之一的黑莓公司而言，Z10并不足以改變市場格局。但如果黑莓放棄競爭激烈的消費部門，依然可以隱居幕后，因為公司和政府仍依賴黑莓服務器來保證數據安全。因此，黑莓新管理團隊開放BBM的目的，或許是為了幫助它擺脫安靜死去的悲慘命運。（財富中文網）

????翻譯：劉進龍/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.