BBM finally out on Android and iOS

BBM is now officially out on Android and iOS though its the launch is low key. The sad thing is that its not available to Nigeria on the Google Play Store.

I got a mail from Blackberry informing me of the availability of the BBM app shared below.

Unfortunately, the BBM app is not available in Nigeria which is surprising. The reason for this is still not clear but we'll get to the bottom of this.

......More to come

Samsung: Android's Major Threat?

Android is the world's most popular mobile operating system; 75% of all smartphones sold in Q1 2013 were Android. From humble beginning in 2008, Android worked its way to the top, supported by phone manufacturers who wanted a stake in the then Nokia/Apple dominated market. Android is an open-source software stack with permissive licensing which allows the software to be freely modified and distributed by device manufacturers, carriers and developers. 

Samsung has benefited the most from the success of Android, as its sales figures and profits have increased enormously over the years. The successful launch of the Galaxy S4 is an indicator that it's a major player in the handset market and the undisputed "King of Android". But it's not certain how long this fruitful union will last. There are indications that both parties are getting wary of the other.

Samsung always aimed to stand out from other Android device manufacturers by trying to create a Samsung experience, with the introduction of Samsung apps blended with Android releases for specific features on their devices. Now, they've taken it a step further by introducing apps such as the S-Voice and S-Translator in its flagship Galaxy series which can be viewed as alternatives to the Google apps. 

Not only that, Samsung announced a campaign in February that promises developers, 100% of revenue from software sold in its store. This is a massive effort to encourage the development of apps specifically for Samsung phones. It's evident Samsung have a plan of a future without Android and are simply getting all they need from Android; waiting for the perfect time to move on.

Google on the other hand are wary of this threat to Android and had hoped to use Motorola (which it acquired in 2011), as its joker, but this has not paid off yet. It has been slow to get the production lines busy again, though there are rumours of a Google inspired X phone from Motorola, meant to rival the iPhone and Galaxy S series phones.


Android and Samsung have come a long way together, thumping Apple to second best and causing a stir in the mobile world. However, things are not the way it used to be and their relationship can be summed up by the line " Keep you friends close but your enemies closer".

The Smartphone Revolution

Last year saw a record of  over 600 million smartphones out of about 1.6 billion phones shipped worldwide in what many see as a "Smartphone Revolution". Smartphones are getting more popular by the minute.

Android was the No. 1 smartphone operating system with 68.4% of the global smartphone market, followed by Apple's IOS and others (like Blackberry OS, Symbiam and Linux) and its increasing the gap.

 Android is up 13%, iOS down 7%, BlackBerry down 81% … and Windows Phone up a massive 52%. Android is now the favourite smartphone operating system. As a result of its affiliation with Android, Samsung has seen its phone sales soar and had 25% of mobile phone shipments in 2012. Other manufacturers of  Android based smartphones such as LG, HTC, Sony and Huawei also experienced growth in sales figures. Apple's IOS is now experiencing the the heat of competition from Android (Samsung) as its lost ground in its key markets in China and US due to the success of the Samsung Galaxy S3.
This battle for more market share will continue through 2013 global smartphone installed base is expected to grow by 33% this year and double in size by 2016. With projections that smartphones will be twice the number of feature phones coupled with its market share of 60%, its no wonder why mobile phone manufacturer have been busy trying to woe customers with ad campaigns geared towards improving sales and market share.

 Nigeria is surely not left out of this revolution, for example, Nigeria is the largest market for Blackberry in Africa as we speak and this speaks volumes of our own Smartphone Revolution.
Countries with major installed smartphone bases include China, United States, Germany, Nigeria, India, Brazil and Russia (Courtesy: StrategyAnalytic). The Nigerian market is the tenth largest in the world in terms of mobile subscribers and I can modestly estimate that 1 in every 8 mobile subscribers uses a smartphone in Nigeria, and this would translate to about two (2) million smartphone users. With the introduction of many low price Android phones into the Nigerian market by Huawei, Samsung and others, these numbers can only go higher.
Smartphones have come to stay and are now part of our everyday life and as more people embrace it in Nigeria, a whole lot of opportunities abound.

What are these opportunities?you might ask, I'll be discussing them in the concluding part of this article next week.