It has been barely 2 weeks since we sat down and spoke candidly to Ted Livingston about the sudden, viral growth of Kik Messenger and his plans as CEO to guide it going into 2011.

He has some big ideas about the direction he will take it, with his loyal team by his side, but as many of you know (or have noticed) BlackBerry users hit a huge roadblock recently with the app being pulled from App World and push access blocked by RIMs’ servers. Ongoing security and privacy issues are the culprit, something RIM doesn’t take lightly.

Being the diplomatic CEO that he is, he took to Kik’s personal blog to explain finally what is going on behind the scenes, now that Kik is quickly surpassing the 2.5 Million user mark, a huge milestone for any Web 2.0 service.

Ted was quoted on the blog:

“RIM has shut down ‘push’ access; as a result, messages to BlackBerry users will be delayed by up to an hour. RIM has also now removed access to the BlackBerry Software Development Kit and Signing Keys, so any future development is frozen.”

What doesn’t sit well with anyone regarding this situation is, why now? RIM has worked very closely with Kik thus far on developing the app, even offering accolades at DevCon and more recently honoring them as one of the first five featured apps to be included in its upcoming BBM platform. They knew how it worked, what it did (scans your phone book to find other users, which is why it grew as fast as it did), and how it was developed. The answer may not be as simple as we all think, but we at least deserve some answers.

Kik is a cross platform IM that has the potential/momentum to become a house hold brand similar to BBM; it works great, is lightening fast, and above all is easy to use. In the now-saturated market that it is growing in, this is a hard feat to achieve, RIM needs to not see Kik as competition, but more of a partner in capturing those who have migrated OS’s, but have need for instant connectivity (seeing that BBM will never be made cross platform).

One can only hope that RIM will retract the decision made, make-up with Kik, and work with them towards a future of greatness, besides it made it on “The View,” that’s got to count for something.

UPDATE:

RIM has finally released a statement, via CrackBerry on this debacle:

“RIM became aware of a number of issues and customer concerns regarding the Kik app and service. Following discussions with Kik, the app was removed from BlackBerry App World on November 12. Upon further investigation, RIM concluded that Kik had breached contractual obligations. Based on the broad scope and seriousness of the issues and concerns, RIM terminated its agreements with Kik and withdrew RIM’s support for Kik’s service.”

Let’s see how Kik reacts to this new blow, stay tuned.

[via Kik Blog]