BlackBerry BBM Ap Attracts 10 Million Downloaders, But Will Users Stick With It?

Over 10 million people downloaded the new BBM ap for iOS and Android on Monday, according to the blog of Andrew Bocking, executive vice president of BBM at Blackberry.

That puts BBM as the no.1 most downloaded ap in 75 countries (including the U.S., UK, Canada, and a large portion of the Middle East) according to Apple App Store's free app rankings.

"I've seen reports of apps that launched with one million downloads in a day, but over 10 million? Amazing," Bocking wrote in his blog Tuesday.

The hoards of BBM downloaders are satisfied with the new app, according to Bocking.

"We have also seen overwhelmingly positive reviews on Google Play and the App Store," he blogged. "In fact, BBM has earned 60,000 five-star reviews on Google Play from about 87,000 reviews."

Bocking hinted he was not discouraged but encouraged by a fake version of the ap that disrupted the company's network and delayed BBM's original release date of Sept. 21.

"When we saw almost one million people install an unreleased version of the Android version, another million use workarounds to download BBM onto their iPhones and another six million people pre-register to know when BBM became available for iPhone and Android, we knew we were on to something huge.," he wrote.

Bocking said Blackberry will continue to upgrade the BBM ap, which means "bringing BBM Video, BBM Voice and BBM Channels to Android and iPhone customers, too."

Not all reviews have been 100 percent positive. An article on CNET said the ap is inconvenient and potentially dangerous by asking for a login, password, and pin number. Most phone chat aps log users in by verifying via the SIM card, CNET reported. Asking for all that login information is slow and could be a potential opening for hackers.

CNET author Michael Tan believes people are downloading the ap as a novelty item and that it will eventually fade away.

"The most likely scenario would be that millions of people will install BBM on their Android and IOS smartphones, just out of curiosity, but in a short time, the app will be uninstalled or remain unused -- it's just so behind the times that it is quite a disaster," Tan wrote.