BlackBerry services are still down internationally, America feels effects
Research in Motion's BlackBerry services are now out of commission for their third day in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.
"We know that many of you are still experiencing service problems. The resolution of this service issue is our Number One priority right now and we are working night and day to restore all BlackBerry services to normal levels. We will continue to keep this page updated," a service update from RIM on Wednesday said.
On Tuesday, RIM said the widespread disruption to BlackBerry Messenger and mobile Web browsing was caused by a twofold core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure. The company said the first switch had failed, and the failover backup switch also failed.
The company notes that BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas might also be experiencing service delays, but did not say whether they are a result of the service lapse in the rest of the world. We have gotten reports from users in both the United States and Canada who complain of long delays.
Not that there's ever a good time for a widespread service outage, but if there ever was a bad time for BlackBerry services to be unavailable, this would be it. Apple's new version of iOS releases to consumers today, and it includes iMessage, a feature that mimics BlackBerry's long-exclusive group messaging and live presence chat application BlackBerry Messenger.
So as BlackBerry users go without their famous BBM today, iPhone users are getting iMessage.
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