While many had written off BlackBerry when it admitted substantial losses due to its large inventory of unsold smartphones, the Waterloo, Ontario-based phonemaker appears to have made a successful comeback this week when it rolled out the BlackBerry Messaging app for Android and iOS phones.

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The numbers 10 million in downloads within 24 hours seems impressive that maybe BlackBerry could still recover from its impending black financial hole. In fact, the company had to create a wait list for those who didn't pre-register for the download because of the alleged large number of phone users who want the BBM on their devices.

This has led to some tech Web sites offering ways to bypass the BBM waitlist for iOS and Android app, although reports said that every hour, over 500,000 people are being moved to the front of the line.

However, like Apple's alleged 9 million units of iPhone 5S and 5C sold on the first weekend the two smartphones became available on store shelves even if other reports indicate the 5C is a dud, BlackBerry's claim of 10 million BBM downloads may also be questioned.

The reason for such kind of doubts is the discovery that the rave reviews for the BBM app for iOS and Androids are reportedly fake.

CBC News reported that customer reviews on BlackBerry sites were "overwhelmingly positive" with an average of 3.5 stars for the Apple app and 4.2 stars for on the Google Play store. Moreover, there were 88,000 5-star reviews, but what is worth stressing is that five of the top eight reviews are identical with this statement: "Thank you so much this blackberry team. I was waiting this app. Its really great user friendly and smooth."

CBC added that succeeding reviews indicate identical or similar entries with 5-star ratings.

However, Victoria Berry, BlackBerry communications director for BBM, told CBC News that the company "do not approve of or condone such activities and we are committed to working with Google to resolve this."

CBC also pointed out that while it could be true that BBM has been downloaded 10 million times, the question is do the downloaders of the app use it actively?

That would perhaps explain the observation by CNET writer Michael Tan that it is lonely using BBM for Android because while he was successful in downloading the app on his smartphone, hours after, his BBM contact list was still empty. It led him to even think that he has no friends.

Or perhaps his friends are still in the waitlist or have not bothered at all to apply for the app.

Mr Tan's other observations about the BBM are also points to ponder why BlackBerry has a lot of catching up to do to recover its lost market share even if 10 million people had allegedly downloaded its BBM apps within 24 hours.

His observations include the username and password management has the 1990s or outdated feel, inability to automatically connect the phone owners to all contacts in his directory with the same app installed on their phones, the use of a PC chat app paradigm and the use of PIN numbers, passwords and other old stuff.

Mr Tan added that he wanted to explore BBM further to give it a chance, but "the signup process is already so difficult, unnecessarily complicated, senseless and antiquated that I've already been put off."

While other chat apps are convenient and offer fast ways to get one's contacts into the app, "BBM fails on all counts in that department," he added.

"The last thing we want is to have yet another chat app in your phone that saps your battery, and BBM isn't making it easy for adoptees with its old school PC-oriented style," Mr Tan pointed out.

So despite the 10 million download claims, are you still wondering why BlackBerry is apparently headed for oblivion in the same way that the once iconic brand, Nokia, will soon be just a memory?

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