Gear

BlackBerry Users See the Fail Whale Twice in Week

The cult of the BlackBerry phone is based on the device’s ability to bring e-mails to users faster than they can click through them. But that could become history. BlackBerry users faced a service outage Tuesday evening — the second time in less than a week — that made e-mail, text messages and web services […]

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The cult of the BlackBerry phone is based on the device's ability to bring e-mails to users faster than they can click through them.

But that could become history. BlackBerry users faced a service outage Tuesday evening -- the second time in less than a week -- that made e-mail, text messages and web services such as Twitter and Facebook inaccessible.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion restored the service Wednesday morning and blamed it on a glitch in its instant messaging program called the BlackBerry messenger.

"Based on preliminary analysis, it appears a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure," said RIM in a statement.

The company has provided a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is encouraging all users to upgrade to this latest version.

The service interruptions could hit BlackBerry's reputation and cause some customers to consider alternatives.

RIM has sold about 75 million BlackBerrys worldwide. But it faces stiff competition from rivals such as as Apple with the iPhone, HTC and Motorola — which recently released the Droid. BlackBerry users have to still contend with a browser that's decidedly 1990s in its look, poor maps, an anemic app store — 2,000 apps to the iPhone's 100,000.

Meanwhile, outages on the RIM network seem to be getting more frequent. BlackBerry users faced similar problems accessing their e-mail last Thursday. Which raises the question, exactly what kind of backup systems does RIM have? So far, RIM has chosen not to answer that.

Still concerns over the BlackBerry's recent failures may be "overblown," writes Shaw Wu, an analyst with brokerage firm Kaufman Bros in a research note to his clients.

"RIM's fundamental advantages, including its push network technology and ownership of core hardware and software, [are] underestimated," says Wu. "Our long-standing view is that Apple remains RIM's only true competitor, but we believe there is plenty of room for both to succeed."

Still RIM's stumbles can only help Apple pull ahead.

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Photo: (Lymstylez/Flickr)