Yesterday, at the Mobile Monday Indonesia conference, was given a most interesting presentation about RIM's next step in BlackBerry Messenger's development, encased in some Playbook promotional speech.
Here: first hand report and reactions.

RIM is taking on pretty much everybody at once, from Facebook to Nintendo.

What was in the beginning a simple platform dependent messaging app is turning into a social platform on its 6th version.
Rumors of RIM opening BBM's API have been heard since the Bali Blackberry Devcon, confirmed since then in Poland and now in Indonesia.

Right after the devcon, I suspected them to take a shot at the social everything, and what's been said yesterday confirms my thoughts. BBM will soon be able to:

- Allow users to invite friends to play games, use BBM ID as a game tag.
It looks like Y!M for desktop but more importantly, like online gaming services untill now exclusive to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, with in game chatting features and achievements.

- Make it easier to share all kind of content
Nothing has been explained in details, but I foresee a revamp of BBM groups, where more several more types of files can be shared and accessed with more ease than now, and where more members are allowed. It would also be a good thing if these groups didn't slow down the phone up to comatose state.

- Be used on other platforms
This is only a rumor. When I asked about a confirmation, I was answered "we can't tell you that yet". Which, I guess, means yes. How will it work, I don't know. What I know is that I am ready to pay premium to use it on any device that's not a BlackBerry (or Nokia).

It's pretty interesting now to see that, in the gaming niche, RIM's direct rival is de facto Nintendo, since they are the only ones to offer the same type of 'social gaming' and persistent ID on mobile platform. I have discussed the potential of the API opening in a previous post. Mostly, this is a chance for RIM to become a major actor on the social/community based market.

RIM made a genius move, amongst major bloopers.

- Genius: get the market where it actually is.
From the mouth of Johan Kremer, head of Alliance for SEA at RIM : "We didn't build BBM 6.0 only thinking of Indonesia, but also South America". Acknowledging the market and responding to users's needs. Isn't that beautiful.

- Major Genius: bypass the local bottlenecks.
Indonesian users will be soon able to buy apps from AppWorld through premium SMS.

- Sorta blooper:
Announcing things several month in advance and going back two steps when asked about their development (I am talking about the API) is probably not the best way to communicate. I also don't understand the way they propagate the news about BBM 6.0 through conferences instead of being more open about it.

- Major blooper:
Staying mute about the cross-platform compatibility features of their next products. RIM has already implemented an Android virtual machine (sort of) on the Playbook, we see where they are going. Stop playing hide and seek and tell us what to expect.

The Playbook: A joke to be corrected in the near future.

Kremer brought a Playbook with him, making sure he wore special pants to conceal it in his extra huge pockets.
He demo'd it for a while after the show, and I wasn't impressed at all.

• The device had to be re-booted before demoing it
• There is no 3g support. How am I supposed to use internet if I'm not near a wifi hotspot?
• Way too much BlackBerry tethering (bbm, contacts, calendar)
• No physical keyboard support, limited accessories support
• A version of the PlayBook supporting 4g features is planned for the near future: buying now is a ripoff.

Conclusion: I am patiently waiting for a BBM app for android. RIM is making efforts to penetrate the Indonesian market, but the stiff communication and the lackluster hardware can't convince me to keep faithful to the brand. We'll see later this year if it changes.

For those who don't know, an API is a kind of middle-man interface between to programs, so they can communicate with each other.
For instance,  a Facebook app for iPhone and the Facebook website communicate via Facebook API.

RIM announced during the last Devcon Asia they would open Blackberry Messenger API later this February.

Here is why I think it could be game changing:

Let's start with some facts and figures:

• The key features of BlackBerry services are push email, integration with enterprise services and instant messaging
• BBM offers features pretty similar to social media services (photo sharing, calendar, etc...)

• BBM is used by more than 33 millions users worldwide
• RIM, by now, ties with apple when it comes to the amount of sales (behind Nokia with ± 14 millions units end 2010)
• The brand is available from approximately 565 carriers and distribution partners in 175 countries

Now with the crystal ball.

A daring bet

Where will the new users register, and how?
Through BES (paid) only, that would mean they would allow a one way only communication, potentially discouraging potential buyers who would have opted for their products for the IM service.
Making it free would mean even more potential loss, and the possibility for the BBM protocol to fall into oblivion.

Both methods are risky. Why taking this risk?

RIM could be the new Yahoo!

If now yahoo claims to have around 260 millions users, we all know where they're at.
Their innovation strategy toward the public as a disaster, and they are resting on their main services awaiting an epiphany that might as well never come.

RIM, though,  is in a similar situation as the early Yahoo!, with a powerful e-mail service (even if only push) and a fast growing IM protocol, but with the enormous advantage of being already well implemented in the mobile market and enterprise culture.

So yes, RIM could very well be the new Yahoo!, leading IM and e-mail for the next decade.

RIM can take on Apple and Google, frontally.

RIM can go where Apple and Google can't.

On the mobile market, they tie with Apple and best Google, that's no secret already.
But when you think about it, they have an advantage on one decisive aspect: the social factor of their user base.
Google has been desperately trying to get social with the failed Wave and Buzz experiments, and Yahoo! as done... practically nothing about it.
RIM has integrated many social features in their messenger already, statuses, media sharing and commenting, message broadcasting, and, of course, groups.
That is to say, BBM user base is social-media ready by nature, and already has a platform.

What could they do with it?

At that point, everything is but speculations. But there are some possibilities:

Opening the API in an OAuth kind of way (single shared log-in for several services) would provide a centralized and portable ID to access multiple services. Data monitoring, from that point on, looks like a logical source of revenue/information.

Setting up a persistent social platform based on BBM features has a lot of potential.
With their e-mail client, RIM has shown its expertise as an content aggregator, and with such a user base the occasion is golden for them to become both a provider and a connector in the social media field, especially since they already have a whole ecosystem ready to sprout around it.

2011 promises to be very exciting.