BBM Chief Andrew Bocking Quits Blackberry

Andrew Bocking, the executive vice president in charge of its flagship messaging product, BlackBerry Messenger, has decided to quit the company. “The BBM organization remains as a group within BlackBerry and will continue to focus on BlackBerry and BBM strength in messaging and new areas of strength such as mobile marketing, community-building and enterprise messaging,” said a statement issued by Blackberry. The news about Bocking’s exit was for first reported by BGR.

 

Bocking, was the head of the messenger service BBM since June last year and had previously run its software product and ecosystem division, along with product management. Most recently, he was responsible for leading BlackBerry through the process of opening up BBM to rival platforms iOS and Android. With over 80 million users, BBM is the only driving force that has kept the company from falling apart.
After Bocking’s exit, BBM remains a separate unit within the company, but now will fall under the responsibility of John Sims, who joined BlackBerry in December to head its enterprise unit. He is the latest amongst high-profile executives to leave the sinking smartphone manufacturer.
The Canadian smartphone maker announced last month that it will soon bring BBM Channels and BBM Voice to Android and iOS. In other news, Blackberry announced that it will stick with hardware based keyboards for its future designs and also updated BB 10 OS with an array of apps and new features today.