Is BBM ready for the Messaging War?

It's an open secret that Blackberry have decided to offer their BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on Android and IOS platforms, and was scheduled to be launched in the summer. Unfortunately, the anticipation of BBM fans have been worn by the inability of RIM to meet up with the scheduled launch date, though there are reports that BBM for iOS and Android devices is due within days. 

With their seeming inability to meet up with he launch date and expectations of many fans, I seem to wonder if they're ready for the competitive world messaging apps. While Blackberry are still busy with BBM beta testing, their rivals have been their major rivals have been improving their apps.

Whatsapp have added new features such as ability to send multiple multimedia files (e.g up to 10 pictures) at the same time, this is not available on the current BBM, which only allows you to send one picture at a time. They also launched the Voice feature for sending voice messages which is similar but not as sophisticated as the already available BBM Voice.(Note: Whatsapp has over 300m users)

WeChat is another major player in the messaging world with over 300 million users primarily in Asia and has been re-branded for the international market. WeChat has similar features with Whatsapp but the Shake feature on their app is real cool.

Viber is another strong player in the messaging world with over 200 million users and offers texting, voice and video calls on mobiles and now on PCs. 

You'll agree with me that BBM with just about 55 million users have a lot of catching up to do, and further delays in the launch will not help their quest to be the No. 1 Messaging App. Also the current BBM features are pretty much basic and can be provided by almost any of the apps mentioned above. Blackberry needs to give the BBM app a 'Waoh factor' to enable it standout.

Only time will tell if BBM's move into the competitive world of messaging apps was worth it.