RIM Tries to Make Amends for BlackBerry Outage With Free Apps
By Harry McCracken | Monday, October 17, 2011 at 1:42 am
After the worst BlackBerry outage ever–it affected customers around the world last week for up to three days–RIM is trying to make amends. It’s decided to let customers download a bunch of apps, worth more than $100, for free from the BlackBerry App World store.
They include:
- SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
- Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
- N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
- Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
- Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
- Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
- DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
- iSpeech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
- Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
- Nobex Radio™ Premium – Nobex
- Shazam Encore – Shazam
- Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo
Enterprise customers will also get a month of free tech support.
As I read that list, I suffer from pangs of cognitive dissonance. Corporate E-mail is important stuff, and delivering it reliably is utterly core to RIM’s mission and reputation. Free poker games feel like an off-topic way of making up for an e-mail outage. What would be more appropriate? Well, how about cash?
The timing of the outage and RIM’s response is particularly meaningful, because RIM is holding its developer conference this week in San Francisco. The conference comes after a long jag of lousy PR for the company–not just the outage, but also the dismal PlayBook launch, lukewarm reaction to new BlackBerry hones, and open questioning of the competence of RIM’s co-CEOs. Really, the last time when the company got any good PR was at last year’s DevCon, when the PlayBook was announced.
So let’s look on the bright side: This year’s conference is a great opportunity for RIM to begin a rebound. Maybe it’ll address the outage forthrightly and explain why it won’t happen again. Perhaps it’ll have news about a PlayBook II. It should reveal more about the first BlackBerries that’ll run the QNX operating system. I’ll be in the audience for the keynote, and I’d love to come away feeling good about the future of what was once one of the most innovative and successful companies in technology.
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14 Comments For This Post
October 17th, 2011 at 4:11 am
Can we get more details when this free offer will be activated? Also, for which devices? I cannot see any of these apps for Playbook
December 5th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Can we get more details when this free offer will be activated? Also, for which devices? I cannot see any of these apps for Playbook vehicle accident lawyer
January 4th, 2012 at 4:48 am
The funny thing is that it probably worked. Muay Thai | Muay Thai Kick | Martial Arts for Children.
October 17th, 2011 at 6:08 am
BlackBerry is losing the fight against Android and iPhone, a great read http://www.maindevice.com/2011/10/15/is-blackberr… will make you believe that
October 17th, 2011 at 8:28 am
If RIM wants to make amends, then Lazy and Silly should resign.
October 17th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
blackberry next blackout solution: http://www.aslpin.com/?r=site/buzz2
October 21st, 2011 at 7:11 am
Cool, whenever your BB stops working now you can at least play Sims or NOVA while they work on the repair and restore the service. Not a bad marketing idea 😉
December 13th, 2011 at 6:02 pm
When sony got hacked, they also offered free games as a form of apology. However, for RIM to do the same, I wonder if it is a viable strategy. As mentioned in the article, maybe cash would be a better option. Another way that could be done, is to offer a $100 online voucher to redeem anything on Blackberry's online App store.
December 22nd, 2011 at 3:12 am
I want to know more about this new offer from Blackberry. Too bad the free apps are now on a price. cheapest tickets to india
January 16th, 2012 at 3:01 am
atleast they offer something as aninsentive to stay with them whatever did sony offer.
January 20th, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Can't fault balckberry for trying to retain customers, much better than what sony did. Buy Twitter Followers Cheap
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