Dubai: Research in Motion (RIM) is giving BlackBerry customers $100 in premium apps at no charge, answering calls for compensation to users who lost three days email and BlackBerry Messenger service until the network was restored on Oct. 13.
Last week, UAE telecoms etisalat and du announced they would also compensate BlackBerry users with adjustments on their monthly bills for the BlackBerry blackout that knocked out services in Europe, Middle East and Africa and spread to other countries when a backlog of messages couldn't be cleared quickly enough.
Rim announced on Monday that following service disruptions, it is offering each affected BlackBerry user more than $100 of premium apps at no charge as part of what the company called "an expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions. The apps will be made available to customers over the coming weeks on BlackBerry App World and will continue to be available until December 31, 2011."
Mike Lazaridis, Rim co-CEO, said on Monday that the BlackBerry "global network supports the communications needs of more than 70 million customers. 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."
"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," he said in a statement.
The company said users will have to wait for a couple of days before the new premium apps offer kicks in on Wednesday, the day when apps can be downloaded over four weeks.
Some of the new apps on offer include SIMS 3, Bejeweled, N.O.V.A., Bubble Bash 2, Photo Editor Ultimate, DriveSafely Pro, iSpeech Translator Pro, Nobex Radio Premium, Shazam Encore and Vlingo Plus.
The list will be expanded with "more to come" in the coming days, Rim said.
BlackBerry users, meanwhile, will also be offered a month's free technical support from Rim.
