BBM coming to Android Gingerbread devices next month, says BlackBerry

BlackBerry’s popular messaging app, BBM which was recently launched for the Android and iOS mobile platforms, will be coming to lower-end Android devices that are running on Gingerbread in February this year. BBM’s head of product and market branding Jeff Gadway made the announcement on BlackBerry’s blog saying,"BBM will soon also be available on Android Devices running Gingerbread(v2.3.3+)." He adds that the team has been busy in getting the product ready for Android phones running Gingerbread and that they will put out an external beta ahead ahead of the official launch in February. It’s not clear whether the launch will take place early February or towards the end. According to the most recent Android Developer Dashboard which was published on January 8, Gingerbread represented about 21 percent of the total Android platform. This means that older version is still a little relevant in some markets where most entry level budget smartphones are launched with the Android 2.3 build. For example some of the lower-end smartphones from Micromax such as Bolt A26, A27 still run Gingerbread. For BlackBerry it might be a smart move to try and expand its user base on Android by offering the BBM app to more Android users. BBM app for Android and iOS saw over 20 million new users within the first week of its launch.