BLACKBERRY PLANS TO MAKE BBM AVAILABLE TO DESKTOP PCs.

BlackBerry is reportedly thinking about bringing its popular BlackBerry Messenger service, known as BBM, from mobile devices onto desktop computers.

BlackBerry chief executive John Chen said in an interview with Reuters that the move would allow employees of big companies and government agencies to begin group chats on their PCs and then switch over to mobile phones when they leave the office, without skipping a beat.

"We are certainly going to take a very serious look at putting BBM on the desktop," he told the news agency.

BBM was originally exclusive to BlackBerry smartphones, but last year the company took the bold move of making it available to users of iPhones and Android devices. It now plans to make BBM available on Microsoft's Windows Phone and the upcoming Nokia X platforms as well.

BBM has over 80 million users, but user growth has failed to keep pace with that of WhatsApp and other competitors. WhatsApp was bought by Facebook last month for $19 billion (£11bn), highlighting the potential value of a messaging platform.