Micromax was the first company in India to pre-install BBM on all its Canvas smartphones in India. Now BlackBerry and LG have entered into a partnership to pre-load BlackBerry Messenger on all LG smartphones involving both standard and virtual preloading (using the LG App Manager). The LG G Pro Lite would be the first LG smartphone to offer BBM out-of-the-box. LG launched the G Pro Lite in India back in October. Looks like new G Pro Lite units would come pre-loaded with BBM.
Regarding the new partnership, Kevin Shin, Vice President of Marketing for Asia, the Middle East and CIS countries of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, said
BBM is widely used throughout the Middle East, Africa and Indonesia where smartphone users tend to engage heavily in social networking. The LG G Pro Lite offers an optimized BBM experience with its large, high quality display and embedded Stylus Pen.
Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President for BBM at BlackBerry, said
People across the globe are using BBM to connect with each other and the enthusiasm has been phenomenal. 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.
BlackBerry announced that BBM for Android and iOS has crossed 20 million active users a week after its roll out, back in October. The company has not come up with current user stats yet. BlackBerry has promised that Android and iPhone users would get new features including BBM Channels, as well as support for BBM Voice calling and BBM Video calling in coming months.