Instant messengers either on the web or on the mobile are a rage but not a gold rush. It’s one of the areas in the technology scene which looks like it’s saturated but one more comes along. Karbonn, the low-cost mobile maker from India, is launching its own messenger called KIM. First phone to feature KIM will be a touch and type phone with a price of Rs. 4990.
Because of different smartphone platforms which came before like the Blackberry or iOS it made sense for those platforms to launch their own messenger services. Then Android happened, Smartphones proliferated and so did apps. Now everything is an app. Instant messenger is an app. Today’s definition of app is a piece of software which works on almost all mobile platforms. If not, you should at least have a plan to launch an app for the next popular OS.
Blackberry which touted its messenger as one of the differentiating factor is no longer a force to reckon with. Apple which released the iOS messenger didn’t have much luck. Or in other words, it’s not something talk about nor is it something people think of when buying an iPhone. Samsung seemed to be the smarter of the lot. It launched its messenger app, ChatON on its Bada OS, later moved on to Android and is now available for quite a few platforms. That’s really how apps should be now.
Karbonn neither has the first-mover advantage nor the iPhone advantage. What’s really the reason for a KIM?
I really don’t understand the messenger economics. Unless I am confronted with new information that Karbonn’s messenger (KIM) makes a whole lot of business sense and will either keep its customers or get new customers, I would stand by the opinion that KIM is just another thing. The only thing cool about KIM is the name.
Of course, one thing is sure though. With the rise of all these messenger apps, the death of text message is closer than we thought.
