Blackberry outage shows that RIM learned nothing in 2007

As with RIM's April 2007 outage, the latest downtime has been officially blamed on a flawed software upgrade. According to RIM, the millions left without email can lift their kinked neck and point a crippled digit at an "internal data routing system within the BlackBerry service infrastructure that had been recently upgraded." This upgrade, like the one in 2007, was meant to boost capacity and speed message routing. Right, the same issue which RIM assured us had been resolved last April.

[Tom @ Feb 13th 2008 3:50AM]

iPhone users, not relying on proprietary centralized mail servers that MUST be hosted by one company, noticed no errors connecting to Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, or (depending upon the attitude of their companies IT department on enabling IMAP in Exchange) their own company's e-mail servers.

[paul34 @ Feb 13th 2008 4:03AM]

Nice try but the iPhone doesn't even come close to competing with any BB.

As a fellow iPhone owner, please stop embarrasing us. Thanks.

[a nokia fellow @ Feb 13th 2008 4:21AM]

iPhone is far away from BB. But BB is not coming even close to a Nokia. Btw, Nokia users were able to use Google apps (GTalk, GMail, GMaps), various messengers, etc these last years without a data plan on their wifi enabled phones. Unlike a recent BB 8320 (wifi enabled) frustrated owner who gets "No data service available" when trying to use GTalk/YM/GMaps/Opera mini/etc with his own home wifi internet connection. How dumb (thirsty for money) can be BB to do a wifi enable phone and not encourage or develop himself apps which can use this built-in wifi capability THEY put into that phone??

[Wii60 @ Feb 13th 2008 5:02AM]

Actually, I left my Blackberry Pearl behind after the last outage. IMAPidle gets me my email just as fast as my old blackberry did. The best part is, I pay 6 bucks a month for unlimited data. I'm already halfway to having had the iPhone pay for itself from the money. Get an iPhone, unlock it and use t-zones. Best value and a sexy new phone too.

[SHoe @ Feb 13th 2008 10:11AM]

Wii60: so your iPhone synchronizes with your company directory and calendar does it???

[Tom @ Feb 15th 2008 12:12AM]

SHoe: Yeah, you actually can sync with your outlook active directory address book, as well as the outlook calendar, with your iPhone. I'm told (no personal experience, I use open standards instead)

[oGMo @ Feb 13th 2008 4:03AM]

Whine, whine, whine. So service was out for a few hours. What's the last time *anyone* here ran a service of that magnitude? Never, because if they did, they'd be sympathizing rather than whining about it.

There's more than one way to cause an outage: just saying "they learned nothing!" shows the idiocy and inexperience of the poster.

[Reader @ Feb 13th 2008 4:38AM]

The argument that we can't be critical because we haven't been there is completely asinine. Do you not vote because you've never been president before? Hell, how can you be critical of Ricker; have you ever published an article for a blog of the same magnitude as Engadget? I don't care about the rest of your post, but saying someone can't be critique a situation because they haven't been in it is completely stupid.

[Reid @ Feb 13th 2008 11:14AM]

I run a service of that magnitude.

Not only are their outages embarrassing, the amount of time it takes to fix is absolutely absurd.

It is a sign of poorly designed or managed infrastructure.

[oGMo @ Feb 13th 2008 11:32AM]

@Reid: Proof, or you don't, and from your comments: you don't.

@Reader: I'm not saying it's *right*, or *OK*, or that we shouldn't be critical, or that *they* shouldn't be criticized.

I'm saying that the complaints above are asinine. "Flawed software upgrade" is about as generic as it gets. They probably fixed the upgrade problem they had last year and that will never happen again... but the issue this time is completely different. And who knows: maybe it is exactly the same issue. But as supposedly tech-savvy readers, we should be aware of the wide margin here.

If the submitter had any concept of this, the comments made might actually come off as credible.

[oGMo @ Feb 13th 2008 11:36AM]

@Reader: I am saying that if someone has any experience at all---which means experience with things blowing up---then their first thought is more likely to be "oooh, I'd hate to be those guys right now" rather than "whine, my phone isn't getting email".

[Reader @ Feb 13th 2008 7:08PM]

Fair enough

[ljun @ Feb 14th 2008 3:51AM]

how can anyone compare the BB to the iPhone? The iPhone may not be as email-centric, but it'll spank the BB across the board on media access, web browsing and usability.

[Tom Lee @ Feb 13th 2008 5:24AM]

I am an IT staff in Canada, so I don't know alot about IPhone.
But so far BB is the best compare to all other PDA for Corporate.
Manageing 200+ BB with BES server is far easier than 5 Pocket PC phone with Exchange Mobile Services. I don't know about Nokia, but can it sync wireless with Exchange Global Address Book? Also can IT staff lock, kill and erase the PDA wirelessly?
Yes, I agree RIM has alot of problem with their server infrastructure. But who to blame? Their IT staffs have to do more testing before deploying software upgrade. There is nothing wrong with BB or how it work. The problem is from human error. BTW on Feb. 11th, 2008 RIM had a problem again but they fixed it in three hours.

[Magnus @ Feb 13th 2008 10:23AM]

Yes, Nokia can sync with both BB-servers, Exchange running on ActiveSync and Exchange/Lotus/Grouwise through Nokia Intellisync. Full global directory and PIM-functionality supported!

[Jonathan @ Feb 13th 2008 5:43AM]

Why are you guys (Engadget) so critical of RIM? News after news after news has been only to ridicule them for going down a FEW times a year.

iPhone bias?

The iPhone doesn't even begin to compete with a Blackberry, so let's hope not.

[George @ Feb 13th 2008 7:45AM]

Not true, they deleted my anti blackberry comments. They delete whatever they don't agree with. Find another tech news source.

[George @ Feb 13th 2008 7:39AM]

Engadget, any reason why my anti-RIM post were deleted?

[George @ Feb 13th 2008 7:41AM]

WOW, I wonder how many comments get deleted because you don't agree. I actually trusted your news source, guess I'll go find a more credible tech blog.

[Eric @ Feb 13th 2008 7:52AM]

I think the greater question should be why RIM users can't tolerate a few hours downtime a year? I'll grant you they should have informed the userbase prior to the upgrade (maybe they did and the IT departments didn't pass it along. I don't know, I don't follow this stuff that closely), but how many things in this world are as heavily used and as reliable as the BB system?

[Reid @ Feb 13th 2008 11:16AM]

What is it, 16+ hours of downtime in a year? That's 99.8% uptime, and is absolutely terrible for any provider. Especially since the downtime was unplanned. And likely it was more than 16 hours total.

[jd @ Feb 13th 2008 7:55AM]

lol. rimm is so vonerable. if terrorist bomb the rimm hq. the whole north america will suffer huge financial lost....

why the hell rimm make the the service centranlized to one location? i really dont like centralized service center.

[Gorillamonk @ Feb 13th 2008 9:31AM]

wow...your so right. The world would shut down if RIM went down.

[Nate @ Feb 13th 2008 9:43AM]

In other news: BB users de-suction faces from phone; finally get laid.

[Frankenstein Black @ Feb 13th 2008 10:30AM]

Not RIM "upgrades". More like upgrades to THE CARNIVORE cyphering aaaall those messages. Enjoy you’re (business or personal) privacy ;^(...

[Dave Peak @ Feb 21st 2008 3:57PM]

For those of you BlackBerry folks that are getting frustrated, tell your boss about LiquidTalk. The company makes the BlackBerry act more like an iPhone. How? They have a solution that automatically "synchs" (preloads) enterprise audio/video content into one’s BlackBerry. Once loaded, you do not need an Internet or wireless connection. Okay, so I am biased -- I founded the company (now VC backed & working w/ RIM) a couple years ago after getting stuck in traffic and not being able to use my BlackBerry while driving. So that is my disclaimer. But seriously, these blackouts are making folks realize there are things other than email that can get done with BlackBerry. Hope this is helpful. –Dave Peak, CEO