BlackBerry services go down again

And here we go again. Barely hours after RIM got its server up and running again, users across Singapore, India and Middle East are reporting of service outage. While some are complaining about slow service/delayed responses, others have been cut off all together.

The second outage in as many days could not have come at a worst possible time for RIM, which is facing intense competition from Apple and Google, among others. Apple will release its next generation OS for smartphones and tablets tomorrow, called iOS 5, which will have a new feature called iMessaging that is very similar to the BlackBerry Messenger service that made RIM’s phones popular. The Apple iPhone 4S goes on sale from Friday in many countries. Google, too, has launched a feature called Messenger (Huddle) on its Google+ app that replicates the same functionality. Facebook is also implementing its chat feature in its latest smartphone and tablet apps with push notification feature.

UPDATE: We have just heard from RIM and the issue seems to have affected South America too.

Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.