So top of this month (Nov 1st to be exact) we broke a Messenger App called Kik, which works on Blackberry, Android AND iPhone, and once we did the internet took to it Like Wildfire!!! (After the Jump please see the chart from Kik showing when they took off!) Since the App is compared to BBM, RIM has slowly been pulling away, and well it Looks like RIM has made a final decision after having pulled the wildly popular upstart instant messaging app from the BlackBerry App World a few days ago and for current and hopeful Kik users, the news isn’t good:
“RIM became aware of a number of issues and customer concerns regarding the Kik app and service. Following discussions with Kik, the app was removed from BlackBerry App World on November 12. Upon further investigation, RIM concluded that Kik had breached contractual obligations. Based on the broad scope and seriousness of the issues and concerns, RIM terminated its agreements with Kik and withdrew RIM’s support for Kik’s service.”
Now, Waterloo is still being pretty coy about what exactly Kik did to rock the boat so badly, but there are two obvious theories floating around: one, that Kik’s contact harvesting was a big privacy no-no; and two, that the product came a little too close to BBM’s functionality for RIM’s comfort. Hard to say what went down, and Kik’s official response doesn’t do much to clear up the situation. Though the company has thrown up a public response on its blog, it doesn’t clarify what transpired, what “contractual obligations” were allegedly breached, or what (if anything) Kik might do to attempt to smooth over the spat. Instead, the post is more of a PR play, praising the relationship Kik’s had with RIM in the past But It does say, however, that RIM has fully revoked Kik’s access to push notifications and the BlackBerry SDK, so it’s going to be tough for these guys to stay relevant on Bolds and Curves across the land unless RIM reverses its decision….Sorry Guys 🙁
