Customers Slam Blackberry for Back-to-Back Outages

Waterloo-based Research In Motion's (RIM's) is receiving plenty of flak from its users after a second outage in less than a week. The outage left users of the popular handheld without service from Tuesday evening until the following morning.

"One outage is bad enough, but when potential customers hear of two in one week, they get very nervous," said one poster on the Crackberry blog, a forum that keeps users of the handheld in touch with one another and updated on recent events related to the device. (Source: informationweek.com)

Most concerning of all the negative sentiments were threats by some users that they may just decide to invest in iPhones this holiday season. With the number of applications skyrocketing over on that sleek Apple product, some users of the BlackBerry wonder if RIM is becoming too comfortable with its lofty place in the smartphone market.

Troubles Not Over for BlackBerry Network, Users

The trouble is, it doesn't seem that the problems for BlackBerry users are about to stop any day soon.

"Some Blackberry customers in the Americas are currently experiencing delays in message delivery," a Research in Motion representative noted. "Our technical teams are actively working to resolve this issue for those impacted. We apologize for any inconvenience."

An outage is one thing, but consistent trouble with the features that make the BlackBerry so popular -- push email and instant messaging -- are enough to cause serious disillusionment amongst the handheld's once-loyal fanbase. Some insiders are beginning to speculate that the Canadian company has simply grown too fast and that its system has failed to keep up.

Analyst: Outages Indicate Gaps in System

"They invested heavily in upgrading their backup systems after outages in 2007 and 2008, and made some high-profile hires. So that it's happened twice in a week, albeit with a limited duration and geography, indicates gaps," said one analyst. (Source: wsj.com)

User loss of confidence was reflected in Canada's Toronto Stock Exchange, where RIM shares dropped sharply on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.