Black week for RIM

BlackBerry services appear to be back up, following a three-day service failure that tied the hands of millions of subscribers across five continents.

The furore that saw social networking sites being dominated by trends surrounding BlackBerry and its manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) may be extinguished to some level as a sense of relief takes over, but online rhetoric still centres largely around this week's BlackBerry blunder.

The acrimony of subscribers stemmed not only from the fact that they were cut off from Web browsing, instant messaging and Internet services including e-mail, but also from the fact that RIM failed to keep them in the picture.

Throughout the three-day outage, which saw services return on Tuesday and freeze abruptly just hours later, RIM released only vague statements, apologising for “any inconvenience” and asserting that it was working on the problem. Where the problem originated, or when BlackBerry users could expect to be back online, remained anyone's guess as the Canadian smartphone maker sidestepped media enquiries.

This morning, a long-awaited statement issued by RIM went live on uk.blackberry.com/serviceupdate/.

The statement, which expressed gratitude to BlackBerry users for their patience, read: “From 6am BST today, all services across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as India, have been operating with significant improvement. We continue to monitor the situation 24x7 to ensure ongoing stability.”

Yesterday evening a service update was also sent from RIM CIO Robin Bienfait. The update, which can be found at www.rim.com/newsroom/service-update.shtml, expressed profuse apologies to all BlackBerry customers.

“You've depended on us for reliable, real-time communications and right now we're letting you down.”

The pervasive BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) failure, which began around 11am GMT on Monday, was initially reported to have affected subscribers in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

However, reports yesterday confirmed the problem had spread to a fifth continent. Reuters reported that the disruption of BlackBerry services had spread to North America, “frustrating millions of users of the RIM smartphones and putting more pressure on the company for sweeping changes”.

The disruption, reported Reuters, was the worst since an outage swept the continent two years ago, and is “likely to fuel calls for a management shake-up and a possible sale or split of the company, which has failed to keep pace with Apple and other rivals in a rapidly changing market”.

As frustration among BlackBerry loyalists mushroomed, cellphone operators bore much of the brunt of their indignation. The fact that RIM was not adequately communicating with its customers only added fuel to the fire.

Vodacom executive head of media relations Richard Boorman says the company took it upon itself to keep its customer base informed.

“Understandably, our BlackBerry customers were very frustrated. We've been doing everything we can... including posting updates on Twitter and Facebook, sending SMSes and posting information on our Web site. I'm pleased to say that our customer base reacted well to this and largely understands that the issue was outside Vodacom's control.”

An SMS sent to its customers by Vodacom this morning reads: “Latest info from RIM is that BlackBerry services are largely restored, but customers can expect some delays as the message backlog clears.”

MTN SA says the resolution of the BIS connectivity issue today comes as a relief. “Throughout the matter, MTN has been in constant liaison with RIM and was assured throughout that the company was working tirelessly towards a speedy resolution.

“During this period, MTN apologised to its customers and made them aware of the issue through different touch points including its branded stores, correspondence to its clients and on online, print and broadcast media.”

Public and media relations manager for Cell C, Karin Fourie, says the company was inundated with calls to its contact centre, as well as posts on its Facebook and Twitter pages. “Unfortunately, we had no control over the matter and the service disruption affected users across all networks and in multiple countries.

“We have been providing constant feedback and updates to our customers on various social media platforms throughout the affected days.”

Typically a reliable gauge of the public's general sentiments, social networking sites Twitter and Facebook revealed an overall feeling of ambivalence among smartphone users as to the future of BlackBerry.

Relief as the service was restored came with equal measures of scepticism as tweeters, bloggers and Facebook members posted exclamations of joy and jibes aimed at BlackBerry.

One Facebook member remarked: “There's a flashing red light on my BlackBerry!!! Little red stars all over the place...Oh sweet relief...The world all makes sense again;-)” (sic)

Another commented: “Have a blackberrylicious day!” (sic), while tweets included witticisms such as: “Dear Blackberry, I knew I made the right choice with Apple. Regards, God.” (sic)

“Dear Blackberry, do you know what the #iPhone said to the #Blackberry? ...iWork.” (sic)

The widespread woes could not have come at a worse time for RIM, which is fighting to keep its head above water in the growing sea of smartphone technology.

In SA alone, more than 1.5 million users of the services are likely to have been affected, according to Frost & Sullivan's ICT senior research analyst, Vitalis Ozianyi. “The main impact of the failure to RIM is likely to be felt if potential new users opt for alternative devices and services in the market.”

Adding insult to injury, Apple has introduced direct competition to RIM's BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). Apple yesterday introduced a major upgrade to its iOS operating system, which includes iMessage. This is an instant messaging service for users of its iPhones, iPads and even some iPods.

The Apple contender means BlackBerry has essentially lost its competitive-edge as far as its unique positioning in the market goes.

According to Reuters, BBM practically sold the BlackBerry device to young consumers, among whom the free BlackBerry to BlackBerry messaging service was very popular.

“BBM compensated for the smartphone's losses in the corporate market in North America and Western Europe.”

While RIM's stock dropped only modestly yesterday, its shares have plummeted more than 50% this year on a series of profit warnings and product missteps - a “sharp reversal of fortune for a company that once dominated the smartphone market”, reports Reuters.

Yesterday, RIM's shares closed down 3.46%, at C$24.27, on the Toronto Stock Exchange and down 2.17%, at $23.88, on the Nasdaq.