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One of the major events of the year, the launch of the iPhone 5 has been dominating the headlines ever since maker Apple announced... BlackBerry Service Falters After iPhone 5 Release

One of the major events of the year, the launch of the iPhone 5 has been dominating the headlines ever since maker Apple announced the date. The anticipation was building and people were waiting to get their hands on the new smartphone. Just as they were lining up to buy the iPhone 5, one of Apple’s competitors, Research in Motion (RIM) suffered a service outage on its leading device, the BlackBerry. While the people were enjoying the features of the new iPhone 5, BlackBerry owners across Asia (the Middle East), Africa and Europe found they couldn’t send or receive text messages.

Europe Blackberry Problems

Europe Blackberry Problems

Déjà vu for RIM

A service outage is not a rare occurrence anymore. With multiple manufacturers, devices and carriers, users are accustomed to losing services for a while from time to time. However, this wasn’t just an ordinary outage. Though it lasted for no more than three hours, it was déjà vu for RIM. The exact same thing had happened when Apple had unveiled the previous model of the iPhone, the 4S.

It wasn’t as if the incident was some years back. It happened less than a year ago, in October 2011. To RIM’s credit, they had learned from that mistake and reacted quickly to the situation. Messages on various social media websites were posted within minutes to ensure the fans didn’t panic. The technicians worked fast to eliminate the problem. Their share price took a hit but the damage could have been worse if the service had remained absent for a few more hours.

Official Apology Announced

RIM has officially apologized to its customers for the latest outage. The company has been improving slowly and gradually though its market share has been curtailed by Apple and the other fancy phone makers. In this situation, the BlackBerry outage coinciding with the launch of the iPhone 5 is a classic case of bad timing.

 

[ Image via miotec]