RIM Makes Up for BlackBerry Outage with App Bundle Worth $100

Following last week's BlackBerry outage that affected millions of users, Research in Motion announced that it will compensate its customers with a suite of apps worth of more than $100.

All applications offered will become available for download at BlackBerry App World starting October 19 through November 19.

Although RIM announced the availability of 12 free apps, the company confirmed that additional apps will be added to this bundle.

Furthermore, the company also stated that these apps will continue to be available until December 31, 2011.

“Our 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,” said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

RIM's app bundle comprises 5 games and 7 apps: 

• SIMS 3 - Electronic Arts
• Bejeweled - Electronic Arts
• N.O.V.A. - Gameloft
• Texas Hold’em Poker 2 - Gameloft
• Bubble Bash 2 - Gameloft
• Photo Editor Ultimate - Ice Cold Apps
• DriveSafe.ly Pro - iSpeech.org
• iSpeech Translator Pro - iSpeech.org
• Drive Safe.ly Enterprise - iSpeech.org
• Nobex Radio Premium - Nobex
• Shazam Encore - Shazam
• Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant - Vlingo

As for enterprise customers, RIM is now offering one month of free Technical Support, or a complimentary one month extension of their existing Technical Support for customers who already have contract.

Enterprise customers who do not have a Technical Support contract will be offered a one month trial free of charge.

Analysts say that that the 3-day BlackBerry outage may cost RIM more than $100m, but it remains to be seen whether or not these compensations will prevent its customers from turning to other platforms, such as iOS or Android.

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