RIM BlackBerry suffers another outage, clients unimpressed

The Research In Motion (RIM) line of BlackBerry smartphones suffered a second outage in less than one week, as North American phone owners complained of occasional inability to check their e-mail.

To help combat the problem, which is related to the BlackBerry Messenger program, RIM reportedly has issued a software patch to eliminate the glitches.   Version 5.0.0.57 of the BlackBerry Messenger is now available, with RIM monitoring network traffic to reduce the number of outage incidents.

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Anyone using the troublesome software can download the new version by using BlackBerry App World or using the BlackBerry.com/Messenger download link.
boldThe timing of these issues for RIM is the biggest problem, as the company faces extremely stiff competition from the likes of Apple, Motorola, HTC, and other emerging smartphone manufacturers.  The BlackBerry Curve remained the best selling consumer smartphone during Q3 -- due to drastic price cuts -- which needs to continue in the future.

Some customers are expected to demand some type of monetary credits for the outages, as two problems in five days for a company that relies on corporate users is completely unacceptable.  I don't think the company needs to offer a high amount in credit, but it must do something to prove that it cares about customers.

"One of RIM's big advantages is that it's perceived as a reliable device," said Duncan Stewart, DSam Consulting analyst, in a statement to the AP.  "To lose the advantage of reliability would in fact be a very big deal for this company."

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RIM currently has 36 million subscribers -- with 500,000 U.S. government employees, among private contractors -- using RIM products.

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