Author: BWild

The Canadian tech company announced that its BBM has been beefed up as a focus is placed on software.

The tech company from Windsor, Canada may be struggling when it comes to hardware, but it is using its popular BlackBerry Messenger program and other software to help to bring itself back into relevance and profitability.

The company has announced that it has beefed up its free BBM application for all smartphone operating systems.

There are several new features that have been added to the BlackBerry Messenger app, many of which will be quite appealing to the current and future users of the mobile application. Among the most appealing could be one that allows a user to “retract” a message that was sent to a recipient in error. This option also allows a user to set a time limit on the existence of a message that has been sent.

The BlackBerry Messenger update also provides new location reporting tools that gives users a greater options range.

For instance, the new BBM features make it possible for users to be able to decide whether or not they would like to publicly reveal their physical location. They can decide that they do or do not want to share this data and, if they do, they can state exactly how long they wish to continue to do so.

Until very recently, most of those features did actually exist in the BBM mobile app, but they were available only when using the premium version of the application, for which people paid an annual $12 subscription fee. That said, now that social messaging competition is headed skyward, BlackBerry has opened up these features to users of the free mobile app.

According to the BlackBerry senior vice president of BBM, Matthew Talbot, “Building on the renowned immediacy, reliability and security inherent to BBM, the new release provides unmatched level of privacy and control to BBM users without any subscription fees.”

Talbot also went on to say that providing control over the BlackBerry Messenger content and messages shared by users can ensure that those individuals can be confident in the control they have over that information.

Large banks seek to maintain their position in the mobile commerce market

Five of Switzerland’s largest banks are in talks with retailers and SIX Group, a financial infrastructure provider, concerning the development of a new mobile payments service. Credit Suisse, PostFinance, Raiffeisen, UBS, and ZKB have begun open-ended negotiations with retailers Coop, Migros, and telecommunications company Swisscom seeking to band together and develop a  new payment platform that can compete with those coming from Apple, Google, and Samsung. The banks want to ensure that they have a strong position in the mobile commerce space, which is beginning to grow rapidly in Switzerland.

Consumers are becoming more active in mobile shopping, presenting retailers with new opportunities

Notably, UBS, ZKB, SIX Group, and Swisscom all have their own mobile payments services which have been available for some time. These companies believe that the mobile commerce market could be quite lucrative, especially as retailers become more involved in the mobile space. Many consumers are beginning to rely on their smartphones and tablets to shop for and purchase products, and they are beginning to migrate offline, using their devices to make purchases in physical stores.

Retailers may opt to continue using already well established payment services

Whether or not the banks and retailers decide to work together on the development of a new payment service has yet to be seen. Some retailers have shown modest interest, but they may be more inclined to use already well established services that have become consumer favorites. Banks still want to maintain control of the growing mobile commerce space, however, and may opt to develop their own payment services in order to do this.

Banks want to be able to effective compete with tech companies in the payments space

Apple, Google, and Samsung have all developed their own mobile payments services. These services have been made available for some time, with Apple and Samsung only just beginning to move into the European market. Banks have shown support for these services, but they have also been somewhat resistant to their spread, as they want to retain their position in the burgeoning mobile commerce market without losing revenue to these companies.