Submitted by Anders Batten on
Rumors originally pointed to a June 27 release for the iOS and Android versions of BlackBerry's Messenger software, but CEO Thorsten Heins has confirmed that the long awaited BlackBerry Messenger won't be available until later this year. Heins announced that the cross-platform service will land on both iOS and and Android devices "before the end of this summer," during a quarterly earnings call this morning.
BBM will be free to download, but it will only support devices running iOS 6 or higher, and Android 4.0 or higher, according to MobileSyrup.com. The service will also initially be limited to messaging and groups at launch, with plans to add other popular BlackBerry features such as BBM Voice in future updates.
Heins also reported a quarterly loss of $84 million after disappointing Q1 sales of its BlackBerry 10 OS handsets. The company shipped a total of 6.8 million smartphones during the quarter, meaning most of the handsets sold were cheaper last-generation BlackBerry devices, and not the newer Z10 or Q10 BlackBerry models.