textPlus chose Windows Phone over Blackberry: “ It’s pretty clear that Windows Phone … should eventually displace BlackBerry”

GigaOM reports TextPlus, who just launched a beta of their cross-platform  text messaging app for Windows Phone, decided very consciously to develop for Windows Phone ahead of Blackberry.

“The second we saw the OS and (Nokia) Lumia devices, we knew we wanted to support it,” said Scott Lahman, CEO and founder of TextPlus. “It’s a beautiful OS with a fresh take on what a phone OS can look like and that’s motivation for us to innovate. The OS brings elements that would be buried vertically to the top and you can see all your conversations, communities and contacts lists very easily. And you can pin specific conversations to the home screen. It’s elegant, easy to use, and it puts all of the elements at your fingertips.”

Lahman said TextPlus looked at launching a BlackBerry app a couple years ago, but couldn’t get it up to the quality level it wanted. And then when RIM announced a shift to a new operating system, Lahman said the company put further development on hold until it can get a better sense of what BlackBerry 10 looks like.

That Blackberry app may never end up being developed however. Lahman said it’s pretty clear that Windows Phone will be third place competitor in the market and should eventually displace BlackBerry.

“We didn’t need to be convinced by the numbers but by the user experience,” he said. “I would bet on Nokia and Microsoft to bring some powerful momentum here. These are some hungry organizations.”

TextPlus has 27 million registered users and is now doing 110 million messages a day and has recorded 27 billion messages sent to date.  It also expects to roll out its TextPlus Free Calls VoIP companion app for Windows Phone in the first half of this year.

Read more at GigaOM here.