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BBM now available on Windows Phone [ITP.net (United Arab Emirates)](ITP.net (United Arab Emirates) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) BlackBerry announced on Thursday that its popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) platform would be made available on Windows Phone. The struggling smartphone maker last year made BBM available on iOS and Android in a bid to onboard more users. However, a port to Windows Phone has taken much longer. BlackBerry hopes that, with Windows Phone support, BBM will become a more attractive offering for enterprise users, given that it is now available on every major mobile operating system. More broadly, BlackBerry hopes to become more software and services-focused as its smartphone market share has nosedived over recent years. New devices sporting the touch-centric BlackBerry 10 operating system failed to bring its smartphone business into recovery, so the vendor is now aiming at providing services to enterprises. Much of the services revolve around security. Last month, BlackBerry unveiled BBM Protected – a secure messaging service aimed at government agencies and high-security industries. The firm also last week announced the acquisition of German mobile security company Secusmart, which specialises in encryption and anti-eavesdropping technologies. This push towards security seems to be making some headway – upon BlackBerry's Secusmart acquisition announcement, a German government spokesperson said that BlackBerry was the only platform that the government trusted. (c) 2014 ITP Business Publishing Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |