I cannot think of a better way to describe Kik for BlackBerry other than a “Debacle.” Kik Messenger was a promising cross platform messenger service that supported the BlackBerry platform and it looks like it will no longer do so.
RIM sent us the following statement which vaguely states their side of the issue:
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.
From how I am reading this situation it seems like Kik did something so gruesome that RIM just wanted to wash their hands clean. There are quite a few other services that offer similar features like Kik yet they seem to continue to enjoy RIM’s grace. If RIM was worried about the competitive BBM features then they would have nixed Kik in the bud along with its competitors. My guess is that it has something to do with how Kik mined your address book for contacts and possibly sent it to their servers (securely?).
Personally I never really understood how Kik took off since it was a battery eater and really slowed down my Torch but to each his own. Still I thought the service was innovative and had enough viral energy to actually make it and somewhat replace SMS for cross platform conversations.
This is still the first time I have heard of RIM revoking the signing keys of a developer and just calling it quits. They don’t have that many dedicated BlackBerry developers where they can afford to do this often and it seems like this was done due to something only Kik did.
Now I am deadly curious to find out exactly what it was they did… Send us a tip if you have any leads!
Terrence T ( View Profile) - Posts: