Unlike other smartphone makers, RIM's business is built in large part around their own service offerings which include messaging and email servers. They primarily cater to businesses, which is why they were the number 1 smartphone platform in the US before the iPhone came along.
In a statement, RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said:
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 apps will be available from RIM's BlackBerry App World through the end of the year. They include:
- SIMS 3
- Bejeweled
- N.O.V.A.
- Texas Hold'em Poker 2
- Bubble Bash 2
- Photo Editor Ultimate
- DriveSafe.ly Pro
- Drive Safe.ly Enterprise
- iSpeech Translator Pro
- Nobex Radio Premium
- Shazam Encore
- Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant
In addition to the free apps, RIM will also be giving BlackBerry owners a free month of premium tech support, something that will likely be much more valuable to their large number of corporate customers.
With BlackBerry owners increasingly abandoning the platform in favor of the iPhone and Android, the loss of those services for an extended period probably couldn't have happened at a worse time.
You can bet Google, Apple, and Microsoft see it as an opening to promote their own offerings, along with their smartphones, in the corporate world.
Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 17 Oct 2011 12:02
