Tip UsRIM’s BlackBerry Messenger app has always been admired by the IM-chatting folk, and it looks like Android users might just be getting a piece of the pie according to a few spy shots that display BBM running on an Android device. The photos were taken by a supposed RIM employee who was shown the latest version of the BBM for Android app.
The images are the second set to the first spy shots that appeared earlier this week. Those photos were deemed as fake and highly implausible by many sites, but the second set of images we see here add to the speculation.
The tipster who sent the images into TechnoBuffalo also provided a little background information regarding the screenshot:
I work for RIM and I was shown the latest version of bbm for android. I ran the app on the blackberry android dev phone.( The dev phone feels very cheap and unstable and the front four buttons have just been stuck on. I don’t believe this phone will ever be released to the public.) The latest version certainly looks better than the previous version.
He also adressed the images from earlier this week that were dismissed as being fake by adding the following:
Just to clarify for the leaks earier this week, the “Nicole” account in the previous photos is the default account for BBM Testing.
Obviously, we don’t know if these images are real or not and you probably shouldn’t take them seriously just yet. However, in a couple weeks we might know for sure since the alleged RIM employee says that it is quite possible that BBM for Android could be officially unveiled at BlackBerry DevCon on October 18 – 20 in San Francisco.
If BBM did, in fact, become a cross-platform application, it would be interesting to see how this would affect BlackBerry’s market share since many users have a tight grasp around their RIM device simply because of its exclusive IM client.
If you were wondering about the Android device shown in the photos, it’s simply a developer phone put together by RIM. It will most likely never be released to the public and the RIM employee even said that the phone “feels very cheap and unstable and the front four buttons have just been stuck on.” It’s probably not the kind of phone we would want to get our grubby hands on.
via [TechnoBuffalo]
