Some people just don't know when to quit.
Today, struggling Blackberry maker Research In Motion
The more BBM friends you have, the more your library will grow. The service will rely heavily on trying to build out network effects, since clearly your $5 will go a lot longer if you have more BBM friends. The company has an installed base of 45 million BBM users to pitch to sign up.
RIM's declining market share won't help its attempts to promote network effects. According to Gartner, the Canadian company's market share fell to 11.7% in the second quarter, compared to 18.7% last year as Google's
The 50 song limit is insultingly inadequate for $5 per month. What you're paying for is the novel approach at sharing. No one in their right mind would pay that much for just 50 songs. The company has a tough sell trying to lure users away from popular services such as Spotify and Pandora
Spotify's social sharing implementation is pretty hard to compete with: It connects with Facebook to find your friends and allows you to publish public playlists for all to enjoy. You can even send songs directly to your friends. Spotify is pricier at $10 per month, but even the free service is pretty compelling.
BBM Music really has nothing going for it. Its laughable song limit makes it useless compared to other cloud music locker services from Google and Amazon.com
I'll go as far as to make a prediction: One year from today, BBM Music will be gone, dismissed as a failed experiment, while Research In Motion's market share drops into single-digit territory.
- Add Research In Motion to My Watchlist.
- Add Pandora Media to My Watchlist.
- Add Google to My Watchlist.
- Add Amazon.com to My Watchlist.
- Add Apple to My Watchlist.