RIM says sorry with $100+ BlackBerry premium apps

Research In Motion (RIM) have made their first compensation offer for last week’s BlackBerry outage: more than $100 worth of premium apps at no cost. And corporate customers also get an extension of their service contracts.

Research In Motion announced today that a selection of premium apps worth a total value of more than US $100 will be offered free of charge to subscribers “as an expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions””.

‚Our global network supports the communications needs of more than 70 million customers,‚ said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. ‚We truly appreciate and value our relationship with our customers. We’ve worked hard to earn their trust over the past 12 years, and we’re committed to providing the high standard of reliability they expect, today and in the future.‚

The complete selection of premium apps will become available to download at BlackBerry App World over a period of four weeks beginning Wednesday, 19 October.

The initial selection over this period will include the following (with more to come):

· SIMS 3 РElectronic Arts

· Bejeweled РElectronic Arts

· N.O.V.A. РGameloft

¬∑ Texas Hold’em Poker 2 – Gameloft

· Bubble Bash 2 РGameloft

· Photo Editor Ultimate РIce Cold Apps

· DriveSafe.ly Pro РiSpeech.org

· iSpeech Translator Pro РiSpeech.org

· Drive Safe.ly Enterprise РiSpeech.org

· Nobex Radio Premium РNobex

· Shazam Encore РShazam

¬∑ Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant ‚ Vlingo

RIM’s enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free Technical Support. Current customers will be offered a complimentary one month extension of their existing Technical Support contract, and customers who do not currently have a Technical Support contract will be offered a one month trial of RIM’s BlackBerry Technical Support Services – Enhanced Support, free of charge. Additional details about the program and information about how to register will be available atwww.blackberry.com/enterpriseoffer.

‚We are grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers for their patience,‚ added Lazaridis. ‚We have apologized 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 head of regional marketing Patrick Spence confirmed in a teleconference with South African media that the offer applied only to smartphones and not to the PlayBook tablet. The free apps were applicable to both Internet Service and Enterprise Service customers.

* Availability of this offer will depend on the type of smartphone, operating system version, access to BlackBerry App World and local conditions and/or restrictions.

* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @gadgetza

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The customer growth will increase even.

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