RIM says 'Sorry' with $100 Worth of Free Apps - Here's What You'll Get
After last week's outage in BlackBerry messaging services, many current BlackBerry owners are seriously considering a jump on the iPhone or Android bandwagon. Research In Motion no doubt senses the end may be near for those customers, and possibly for BlackBerry entirely, as they attempt to appease with $100 worth of Free Apps from BlackBerry AppWorld.
In a Press Release issued Monday Morning, RIM stated "as an expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions", and would be offering "selection of premium apps" to BlackBerry users starting this Wednesday October 19th (same day as the Samsung/Google ICS Event) until December 31st at no cost. The list of apps to be included are as follows, with more to be added in the next coming days:
- SIMS 3 – Electronic Arts
- Bejeweled – Electronic Arts
- N.O.V.A. – Gameloft
- Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft
- Bubble Bash 2 – Gameloft
- Photo Editor Ultimate – Ice Cold Apps
- DriveSafe.ly Pro – iSpeech.org
- iSpeech Translator Pro – iSpeech.org
- Drive Safe.ly Enterprise – iSpeech.org
- Nobex Radio Premium – Nobex
- Shazam Encore – Shazam
- Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant – Vlingo
After speaking with a few of my BlackBerry friends, one thing was said unanimously, "If I can't rely on or use BBM, what do I need a BlackBerry for?" Good point. I can tell you that 3 out of 4 people I know affected by the outage are not getting another BlackBerry this year as an upgrade, and will be getting either an Android or iPhone device. Something tells me that many others are feeling the same way.
That said then, is $100 worth of free apps going to satisfy the BlackBerry world after this huge failure of service? A sincere apology from the man at the top, Mike Lazaridis, was a good start, but I sense free apps aren't going to solve the problem that people are afraid it will happen again.
Sources - RIM, Mobilesyrup
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