BBM to be Preinstalled on Some LG Devices

When the Blackberry Messenger app first got leaked out, pulled, and then officially released it was met with excitement and disappointment. While many couldn’t believe it was coming to Android, it took off like a bolt of lightning. Current numbers in the Play Store put it in the 10 to 50 million download bracket. The launch didn’t go all that smooth and had plenty of bumps, but it is alive and obviously flourishing.

Blackberry claims there are around 80 million active users sporting the software with 20 million of them being Android users. It makes sense that they would want to attempt to take it to the next level and find a partner to have the app pre-installed on a device out of the box. A press release that has hit the Blackberry press site has announced just that today. LG will pre-install BBM to the LG G Lite.

“BBM is widely used throughout the Middle East, Africa and Indonesia where smartphone users tend to engage heavily in social networking,” said Kevin Shin, Vice President of Marketing for Asia, the Middle East and CIS countries of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “The LG G Pro Lite offers an optimized BBM experience with its large, high quality display and embedded Stylus Pen.”

“People across the globe are using BBM to connect with each other and the enthusiasm has been phenomenal,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President for BBM at BlackBerry. “We’re extremely pleased that LG Electronics will help bring their customers a more seamless experience with BBM by preloading the app, starting with the G Pro Lite in key markets.”

As you see, there is no mention of the U.S. in their. While BBM will be pre-installed in some LG devices, it looks like it will mostly be for devices in the Middle East, Africa and Indonesia. It is good for Blackberry, even if it might seem a little odd to some of us Android users.

Via Blackberry