RIM: From Outage to Outrage

1:39 PM Although Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) Chief Executive Mike Lazaridis apologized to Blackberry users for letting them down, it seems the company might have permanently made an irreparable damage to its image of being a robust and secure service.

Unfortunately, this came at a time when rival Apple Inc. was gearing up to release the iOS 5 software upgrade to its iDevices. Several corporate users in India, who depend heavily on the Blackberry platform, have expressed sentiments to search for an alternate platform after the outage, since the new software upgrade with iOS pretty much makes up all the features that were present on rival platforms. Also, in recent times due to increased security on iOS, corporates have been willing to let employees use their iPhones and iPads within the office environment.

It's much more frustrating for the enterprise users as it hampers their productivity. This (outage) will further impact BlackBerry's image in India. A three-day outage is highly inconvenient and they should reach their customers more actively either through various communication modes or Social Media to allay consumer fears, says Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner.

This certainly isn't good news for RIM since it made a name for itself within corporates for its encryption and security features.

RIM, for sometime, hasn't been doing that well as a business as well. Its stock value, which was priced at US$1.9 billion in February, has constantly been on a decline, and as of September it has slipped to $640 million.

Also, due to intense competition from Google's Android and Apple's iPhone, it has been reduced to playing catch-up, with new product launches meeting with lukewarm responses at best.

However, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and India have been the markets where it has experienced consistent growth. Thanks to the youth, and their never ending appetite for online socialising (read BBM), Blackberry has managed to rapidly change its image from a serious, boring enterprise tool to a fun and lively brand among the youngsters.

Due to this growth trajectory experienced outside the US/North America market and the recent Blackberry outage, RIM has even offered to set-up local data-centers to avoid such inconveniences in the future. It maybe recalled that Indian security agencies have repeatedly asked RIM to set-up local servers in order to track their encrypted infrastructure. However, RIM has been anything but supportive, asking repeatedly for extensions to work out a solution or giving partial access to their infrastructure.

Realising that India, which is one of the markets they are positive about, they would not want to lose out on this momentum and have hence offered their assistance in setting local infrastructure.

On the other side, this offer could also be examined as temporary relief to sooth down the growing outrage among Blackberry users who have been suffering from different versions of the outage. For some, Internet, email and BBM - all three were down while for some, BBM was down but mail was functional, although it took more than a day for mails to get delivered.

Whatever RIM plans to do, it has to really get its act right as rivals continue to capture market share at its expense. With its QNX-based PlayBook receiving dull reviews and poor sales, amid market rumours of it completely shutting down the production of the tablet, RIM has a mountainous task ahead to re-build its lost reputation.

Ankush Sharma, Copy Editor, Light Reading India