The only person in my life that I know has a Blackberry phone is my niece, and I found out today that she doesn’t have a data plan, and thus can’t use BBM. Thankfully, a friend of mine installed BBM on her phone, and after some issues with inviting each other, we were connected and able to send messages to each other.

I hate to say it, but it felt really lame. Since Blackberry messenger first came out, unlimited text messaging plans have been added, other instant messaging applications have become popular, e-mail has become easier to organize, and both Facebook and Twitter have taken up the rest of my communication needs.

What does having BBM add to my life? What problem is it trying to solve? If you wanted me to talk to my friends that have Blackberry phones then you should have opened this application up to third party devices two or three years ago. I doubt that I’ll use this long term, but like the millions of others downloading the app, I was curious to see if it brought anything game changing to the instant messaging world.