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RIM Offers Free Apps Following Outage
wiredmikey writes "Following a series of outages last week that affected BlackBerry users around the word over a three day period, RIM has come forward with its plans to "make good" on the incidents that frustrated millions of users who bashed the mobile technology provider. Research In Motion today said it would offer a selection of premium apps worth more than US $100 free of charge to subscribers as 'an expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions.' The company also announced that its enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free Technical Support."
I wasn't even aware there was $100 worth of apps on the BlackBerry app store to begin with!
This is the second major outage RIM has experienced while my company has used their phones. Unfortunately for them, this one came right in the middle of my company's evaluation period for new phones company-wde and it just sealed their fate. RIM's going bye-bye.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
When apps on iOS, Android and even Windows Phone are way better than Blackberry apps and people begin to realise that these types of outages are not possible on those platforms (everything on a Blackberry, including internet usage, goes through continental proxies; not the case on Apple et. al. except for specialised services like iCloud and Gmail and such), free apps aren't good enough. On top of that, this doesn't do anything for companies like mine that prohibit end-users from installing anything on our Blackberry phones for regulatory reasons.
Even if they release a phone that's super-awesome and is somewhat competitive with today's smartphones (so far, this seems unlikely), their hub-spoke service model for consumer service is ridiculously outdated. Wake me up when they've gotten rid of BIS and internet proxies.
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Loyal but pi**ed off Blackberry user here... I was impacted by the outage last week. Run a small consulting firm, no BES so I am reliant on Blackberry's infrastructure via my mobile telco. Listen here RIM, if I wanted apps I'd buy an iPhone. Any compensation for us business users? Blackberry's roots are with business users and the enterprise environment, which is why I have continued to suffer with the device as more flash products have been released by RIM's competitors. Last week's outage was such a serious blow to RIM as the back-end Blackberry infrastructure remains their only remaining advantage. The Blackberry Torch -- which I loath for many reasons -- is so gutless that it is barely usable for surfing the web let alone for running Apps. RIM has taken last week's disaster as an opportunity to market their no-doubt underutilized App store. Very disappointing RIM...
The only thing missing from this 'premium' list is a fart app.
Yeah I keep hearing this spin. We are a BES user and all our BB's were all down for 2 days and some were down for all 3 days!
To be fair, the free apps are being offered to the consumer market. The enterprise is being given a month of free tech support.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
RIM: "As a show of...appreciation for your patience during the recent service disruptions, umm...here's a sandwich!"
Customer: "But-"
RIM: "Thanks for coming everybody! Goodnight!"
Customer: "Noooo! Wait!"
RIM: "What? You got your sandwich!"
If you have a chance reaching anyone there... I mean, consider this:
1. They probably won't hire more supporters just for a month.
2. During this month, people will call for anything.
3. RIM already showed how well they scale with increased demand.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.