RIM apologizes for BlackBerry downtime with $100 worth of free apps
Research in Motion is offering BlackBerry owners $100 worth of free apps and one month of free technical support on top of formally apologizing for last week?s extended downtime that affected its mobile services both locally and aboard.
The apps can be obtained via the BlackBerry App World mobile store and include iSpeech Translator, Bejeweled and Texas Hold?em Poker 2, with the offer expiring at the end of the year. The free month of technical support is available to enterprise customers only, according to the Associated Press.
Last Thursday, RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis issued an official apology to BlackBerry users for the meltdown that left a significant number of users without data, roaming and messaging support for multiple days. However, neither he nor anyone else at the company has specifically addressed the cause of the outages or what steps are being taken to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
The BlackBerry services downtime started last Monday and affected users in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India. After a second day of outages in international markets, BlackBerry services went down in the USA on Wednesday.
Ever before the that fiasco, RIM was facing increasing difficulties competing against rival mobile device solutions from Apple and Android device manufacturers. The Canadian device maker moved only 200,000 PlayBook units last quarter compared to the 9.3 million iPad units Apple shipped. Its monthly sales average of 4 million BlackBerry smartphones was also recently matched by Apple's new iPhone 4S in just 72 hours.
In an attempt to stem its downward momentum in its mobile division and offer customers the promise of continued innovation, RIM is reportedly preparing to launch a new mobile operating system for BlackBerry devices that ?leap frogs the mobile industry,' according to yet unsubstantiated claims from Co-CEO Jim Balsillie.
Shares of RIM have bled more than two-thirds of their value so far this year and now trade at $22.48.
The apps can be obtained via the BlackBerry App World mobile store and include iSpeech Translator, Bejeweled and Texas Hold?em Poker 2, with the offer expiring at the end of the year. The free month of technical support is available to enterprise customers only, according to the Associated Press.
Last Thursday, RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis issued an official apology to BlackBerry users for the meltdown that left a significant number of users without data, roaming and messaging support for multiple days. However, neither he nor anyone else at the company has specifically addressed the cause of the outages or what steps are being taken to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
The BlackBerry services downtime started last Monday and affected users in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India. After a second day of outages in international markets, BlackBerry services went down in the USA on Wednesday.
Ever before the that fiasco, RIM was facing increasing difficulties competing against rival mobile device solutions from Apple and Android device manufacturers. The Canadian device maker moved only 200,000 PlayBook units last quarter compared to the 9.3 million iPad units Apple shipped. Its monthly sales average of 4 million BlackBerry smartphones was also recently matched by Apple's new iPhone 4S in just 72 hours.
In an attempt to stem its downward momentum in its mobile division and offer customers the promise of continued innovation, RIM is reportedly preparing to launch a new mobile operating system for BlackBerry devices that ?leap frogs the mobile industry,' according to yet unsubstantiated claims from Co-CEO Jim Balsillie.
Shares of RIM have bled more than two-thirds of their value so far this year and now trade at $22.48.
Comments
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Are there even $100 worth of BlackBerry apps in existence?
Are there even $100 worth of BlackBerry apps in existence?
Beat me to it again!
Wow, impressive reimbursement.
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Are there even $100 worth of BlackBerry apps in existence?
LMAO! That's what I was gonna say. And also on top of that, it's kinda hard to hear his apology when he's so horrible at reading it from the teleprompter without looking like he's reading it from a teleprompter.........This is sad! I hope for them that QNX or BBX or whatever they end up calling it will be a hit for their sakes.
RIP
/eom
Its monthly sales average of 4 million BlackBerry smartphones was also recently matched by Apple's new iPhone 4S in just 72 hours.
I think this is the most telling sign of their downfall. While I dont think they are totally DOA, I think the market has adjusted their stock price to the proper value due to the sales numbers compared to Apple.
RIM is not going away yet, but it's coming (and I think someone is gonna pick them up for a song).
Seriously AI, if you need a proof reader just ask! It's getting embarrassing!
Now what's this about an outage?
http://daringfireball.net/misc/2011/...-galaxy-50.png
Take a look at the Map app interface.
http://daringfireball.net/misc/2011/...-galaxy-50.png
Bit off topic dude...
It does look remarkably like a white 3GS, but to be fair, the iPhone's maps app is powered by Google...so it's probably not a fair point of comparison.
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RIM is reportedly preparing to launch a new mobile operating system for BlackBerry devices that ?leap frogs the mobile industry,' according to yet unsubstantiated claims from Co-CEO Jim Balsillie.
In other news, MacDonalds has announced plans to leapfrog the consumer with ever improving metrics on faster food, and flush their burgers straight down the toilet at no extra cost!
They quote savings of 4-6 hours on the average consumption time for a Big Mac.
(They can't do much worse at this point)
It's a smart statement to make. Too bad it is so obvious he is reading off a prompter. If you want to look like you are really talking to your customers, practice and give a good performance because a poor performance like this one just makes it fake. (you CEO's cant all be Steve Jobs') Better off to read a paper in your hands if you cant be charismatic.
I don't know why you guys are getting on his case, his response wasn't all that bad. It looked almost natural when he said his name, maybe if he practiced 4 or 5 more times, saying his name would have been believable and those that love RIM would be excited when blackberry reaches it's goal of $100 worth of apps by 2015. This giveaway is for the future, keeping it's customer base locked in, pretty good idea when you think about it.
'Locally and aboard'?
Seriously AI, if you need a proof reader just ask! It's getting embarrassing!
However, neither he nor anyone else at the company has specifically addressed the caused of the outages or what steps are being taken to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
"getting" embarrasing? already is ...
i set my limit at one per day ...
Bit off topic dude...
It does look remarkably like a white 3GS, but to be fair, the iPhone's maps app is powered by Google...so it's probably not a fair point of comparison.
It is off topic but you are wrong about the rest.
The maps app on iOS is "powered" by Google, but the app itself, the design of it, and all the graphics are made by Apple. So if it *was* a screenshot of the Galaxy, then it's a blatant ripoff, copyright violation etc.
Unfortunately, what it really is, is a screenshot of an iPhone that some designer stole off of a website and photoshopped it into the Galaxy ad when he/she was making the advertisement/web page. So it's really just illegal and misleading advertising, not copyright violation.
I guess Samsung doesn't really care *which* laws they break, as long as they are breaking *some* kind of law.