BlackBerry resumed its rollout of BBM for Android and iOS earlier this week which was downloaded more than 10 million times in the first 24 hours. Impressive as those statistics may be, it's the controversy surrounding a number of clearly bogus reviews that have cropped up on the Google Play Store that has consumed headlines as of late.
The Canadian handset maker recently addresses the matter in a statement to TNW. In it, a spokesperson said they have been made aware of a number of potentially fake reviews for the app on Google Play. BlackBerry said they have no knowledge of how these reviews were created or populated nor do they approve of or condone such activities.
The spokesperson goes on to plug the many genuine and useful reviews from new BBM users on Android and urges others to continue to post true assessments of their experience with the software through the proper channels.
BBM for Android and iOS launched on Monday and almost immediately, some users started noticing fake reviews. The story didn't really pick up much steam until yesterday when tech blogger Terence Eden discovered that thousands of reviews on Google Play all appear to say the exact same thing.
If the fact that the reviews are riddled with poor grammar wasn't enough of an indicator, the obvious copy-and-paste job should certainly tip you off. The question now becomes, if BlackBerry isn't responsible for the phony reviews, then who is? And what is their motivation?