Much has been written about the popularity of BBM (Blackberry Messaging Service) and its role in helping flash mobs organize themselves during the London riots. Blackberry has been primarily geared towards the enterprise market in the US. But clearly Blackberry and its messaging services has resonated with an entire different set of users that Blackberry engineers and designers didn't have in mind. The use of BBM also speaks to improvisational use of emerging technologies for unintended uses. Messaging is great not only for enterprise clients, but also youths organizing themselves in a revolution or a riot.
When I conducted research earlier in the year in India to understand how mobile users in India use the mobile web, I was surprised to find that Blackberry had captivated teenage girl market in India. I interviewed several girls who had upgraded to a Blackberry only to use BBM. As one of them put clearly, "all my friends are chatting on BBM, I have to be there." She told me that all the girls in her high school class had Blackberrys as they wanted to be part of the gossip. Blackberry has also seen a growth outside of the enterprise market in India because an unlocked Blackberry is available for about Rs 6000 or $150. It does make a good birthday or anniversary gift. When I visited a mobile phone shop at Khan Market in Delhi, I spotted a guy buying a Blackberry as a gift for his girlfriend.
But the future still looks bleak for Blackberry as it continues to lose its market share rapidly. Both Facebook and Apple have launched or plan to launch BBM-styled messaging service. This would make Blackberry less attractive certainly for the teenage girls I met in India: they would rather use Facebook for mass messaging since all their friends are on Facebook already.
