BlackBerry users in line for $100 worth of free apps in compensation

Research in Motion says smartphone customers hit by last week's outages will be able to download apps for free

Millions of people whose BlackBerry smartphones were affected by last week's outages will be compensated with $100 (£63) worth of apps from the company's app store.
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) said yesterday that each of the affected customers would be able to download the apps – including the games The Sims 3 and Bejeweled – from Wednesday, as the company attempts to restore its damaged reputation.
Millions of BlackBerry owners from the Middle East to the US were unable to send emails, browse the web or use BlackBerry Messenger last week after a problem at RIM's network centre in Slough sent a ripple effect worldwide.
Those affected will be able to download the premium apps from the BlackBerry App World until 31 December as "an expression of appreciation for their patience", RIM said.
Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive of RIM, said: "We are grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers for their patience. We have apologised to our customers and we will work tirelessly to restore their confidence.
"We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again."
RIM will also offer customers a one-month extension to technical support contracts. Enterprise customers and those who do not have a technical support contract will be offered a month's free helpline support.
The form of compensation may go some way to winning over customers who vented their anger at the Canada-based phone-maker last week. Comments on the BlackBerry blog CrackBerry appeared to welcome the offer. "Finally! They listened to us, thanks RIM! And thanks to CrackBerry for accommodating our complaint," said kelom.
The compensation package is likely to be costly for RIM if millions of customers take advantage of the offer. But those who download more apps may be more likely to stay with the platform – an important step as RIM tries to stave off defections to Google's Android, Apple's iPhone and the expected Windows Phone devices from Nokia. It has been losing customers in the US – and while it has grown its customer base, those are precisely the areas that were worst affected by the outage.
Analysts had previously forecast that RIM could be in line for a $100m payout to up to 70 million customers worldwide, based on a $5-a-month fee for the BlackBerry services.
"The total amount RIM should pay to refund its customers would be about $12m a day," Malik Saadi, an analyst at Informa, calculated last week. "This amount does not take into account liability fees for loss of data or any related legal issues. This could mean RIM paying over $100m, and this amount could escalate for every subsequent day the service is out of action."

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BlackBerry outage: UK executive says staff working 'day and night' on fix

Apology from RIM's UK managing director as BlackBerry disruption enters third day from problems at Slough centre

Engineers are working "day and night" to try to fix the problem with BlackBerry services which are entering their third day of outages, the UK and Ireland managing director has said.
Stephen Bates told the BlackBerry Innovation Forum in London on Wednesday morning that staff at Research In Motion (RIM) in Slough "thought we had found the problem [BB outage] but had not. We are working around the clock to get to the bottom of the problem."
He added that "We are working night and day to solve the outage. Our apologies to all our customers."
It was the first public statement by a senior executive at the company, which has 70m users around the world. Problems at its Slough offices, where servers relay messages and web pages for millions of users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India, have meant that users have been unable to communicate except by phone. Services in some South American countries have also been disrupted.
The problems began at about 11am on Monday. The Guardian understands that RIM was attempting a software upgrade on its database but suffered corruption problems, and that attempts to switch back to an older version led to a collapse.
Bates said that the problem was "not acceptable", that the "server issues are regarded with high focus" and that RIM "is not going to stop until they get to the end of the problem".
The timing of the problems is made more embarrassing for RIM because it happens on the same day that Apple is scheduled to release a major update to its mobile phone software, iOS 5, which will bring a capability called "iMessage" that competes directly with RIM's BlackBerry Messenger. On Friday, carriers and Apple will start sales of its new iPhone 4S.
RIM is presently running an expensive TV campaign for its new generation of smartphones in the UK aimed at consumers, but Twitter has seen an outpouring of angry messages from disaffected users who are threatening to defect.
RIM has given no timing for a resolution of the problem. In a statement issued at 2200 BST on Tuesday, it said: "The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure. Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience and we will continue to keep you informed."

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