????然而，本周黑莓卻宣布，公司將在今年夏天以免費(fèi)應(yīng)用形式，將BBM向iOS和安卓用戶開(kāi)放，此舉引發(fā)的混亂可想而知。黑莓竟然放棄其唯一一個(gè)真正有粘性的消費(fèi)者導(dǎo)向功能，這似乎是非常奇怪的一個(gè)舉動(dòng)。在極客媒體中，有人稱此舉等于“投降”，而也有人認(rèn)為，公司向其他移動(dòng)社區(qū)開(kāi)放，是非常有力的舉措。

????此舉更像是公司剝離了一個(gè)部門。BBM約有6,000萬(wàn)用戶，在黑莓日漸衰退的消費(fèi)者移動(dòng)部門，BBM無(wú)疑最有前途。如果繼續(xù)與整個(gè)部門捆綁在一起，最終也難逃一同沉沒(méi)的命運(yùn)。但如果讓其自由發(fā)展，BBM或許能夠以一個(gè)獨(dú)立實(shí)體的形式存活下來(lái)——雖然機(jī)會(huì)很小，但總算還有希望。以什么樣的形式存活下來(lái)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(tái)——幫助黑莓進(jìn)軍移動(dòng)廣告市場(chǎng)。此外，其也可能成為希望監(jiān)督員工通信的公司首選的消息應(yīng)用。

????要將這些期望變成現(xiàn)實(shí)，黑莓必須征服已經(jīng)飽和的短信應(yīng)用市場(chǎng)。在這一市場(chǎng)，規(guī)模與位置至關(guān)重要。美國(guó)短信與數(shù)據(jù)方案的價(jià)格大幅下降，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)很難找到有人會(huì)單純?yōu)榱斯?jié)省國(guó)內(nèi)短信費(fèi)而去使用短信應(yīng)用。雖然其他國(guó)家的情況可能與美國(guó)不同，但目前市場(chǎng)上已經(jīng)有WhatsApp、Viber和Skyper等短信應(yīng)用。BBM的賣點(diǎn)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(xué)校園非常流行。目前大多數(shù)第三方短信應(yīng)用均支持所有手機(jī)平臺(tái)，因此它們已經(jīng)積累了數(shù)以百萬(wàn)計(jì)的用戶基礎(chǔ)，遙遙領(lǐng)先BBM。而且，這些應(yīng)用并不需要像BBM一樣，必須有笨拙的識(shí)別碼才能聊天；用戶只需要將應(yīng)用與手機(jī)聯(lián)系人同步，找出已經(jīng)下載應(yīng)用的聯(lián)系人便可以開(kāi)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(shuō)服消費(fèi)者轉(zhuǎn)而使用BBM。

????不過(guò)，BBM確實(shí)有幾項(xiàng)其他短信應(yīng)用無(wú)法媲美的優(yōu)勢(shì)。首先，BBM在第三世界有龐大的用戶基礎(chǔ)，而第三世界是智能手機(jī)增長(zhǎng)最快的市場(chǎng)。黑莓可以利用其規(guī)模來(lái)占領(lǐng)某個(gè)關(guān)鍵市場(chǎng)的短信應(yīng)用領(lǐng)域，例如西非和印尼等。其次，BBM通過(guò)黑莓自有的專用全球數(shù)據(jù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)收發(fā)信息，該網(wǎng)絡(luò)對(duì)接收和發(fā)送的信息進(jìn)行加密，因此被認(rèn)為比通過(guò)其他數(shù)據(jù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)發(fā)送的信息“更安全”。黑莓已向《財(cái)富》雜志（Fortune）確認(rèn)，通過(guò)iOS與安卓版BBM應(yīng)用發(fā)送的信息也將經(jīng)由其服務(wù)器發(fā)送，因此與黑莓用戶發(fā)送的BBM信息同樣安全。

????黑莓的未來(lái)并不明朗，但很明顯，公司認(rèn)為，允許BBM在其自有平臺(tái)之外發(fā)展可能帶來(lái)的好處，足以彌補(bǔ)硬件設(shè)備銷售的減少。這是一個(gè)很好的選擇，因?yàn)殡m然黑莓的旗艦手機(jī)Z10獲得了科技發(fā)燒友的好評(píng)，但對(duì)于希望重新成為消費(fèi)者手機(jī)市場(chǎng)主要力量之一的黑莓公司而言，Z10并不足以改變市場(chǎng)格局。但如果黑莓放棄競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的消費(fèi)部門，依然可以隱居幕后，因?yàn)楣竞驼砸蕾嚭谳?wù)器來(lái)保證數(shù)據(jù)安全。因此，黑莓新管理團(tuán)隊(duì)開(kāi)放BBM的目的，或許是為了幫助它擺脫安靜死去的悲慘命運(yùn)。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????翻譯：劉進(jìn)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.