These past few days, my BlackBerry-using friends have been calling directly rather than using the rather unstable BBM (Blackberry Messenger) - and the issue has blown into a wave of BBM errors across Asia this afternoon. Users are saying that now they can't even deliver any messages using the service. A lot of BlackBerry users in the region are now complaining about it on Twitter.
Detik cites Yolanda Nainggolan, the PR manager of RIM Indonesia today as saying that the problem is occuring not only in Indonesia, but also across the whole of Asia Pacific. She also said that RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM - News) is doing its best to fix the situation, but conceded that she didn’t know for sure how soon they can fix this problem.
Some of the affected users have been joking the errors, declaring today to be BBM Error Day. While some others have switched to Twitter or WhatsApp to message friends instead. One user highlights how important the BBM services are to her - for business purposes:
What the hell is going on? Bbm was error! Omg!
— Siti Ditya Revanie (@sweetyvanie) October 3, 2012my timeline flooded with tweets people complaining the error of bbm having difficulties now. it's only BBM. th... plurk.com/p/heelib
— Metta Tan (@_Mettalia_) October 3, 2012buat dagang bos.. RT @ravellinomoses : Para blackberry user sedang enjoy menikmati error BBM... so why you still choose Blackberry?~ :)
— Balerina Beautyshop (@balerinaos) October 3, 2012This is another reputation-damaging episode for RIM, especially when the company has invested so much in promoting the highly-anticipated Blackberry 10 - and trying to stop users going to Android for a new phone, or shifting to some other messaging app instead of BBM. Note that other data-reliant services such as push email, Twitter, Yahoo Messenger, and WhatsApp are still functional.
In October of last year Blackberry users in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa experienced a service outage as well. This latest incident is certainly not a good sign for RIM, especially in one of the few remaining countries that still likes Blackberry handsets.
Update: RIM Says BlackBerry Messenger Error Resolved[Source: Detik, original picture: reactionface.com]
