RIM Strikes Back at iPhone, Blackberrys Receive Emails Despite Earthquake
This week’s earthquake that shook the east coast of the United States may have halted work for some, but during the tremors their Blackberry’s could still receive emails, according to Bloomberg Business Week.
“RIM’s service has operated normally all day,” said Marisa Conway, a spokeswoman for the company to Bloomberg Business Week.
Research In Motion’s Blackberry smartphone’s are attached to the hip of many bankers, lawyers, executives and politicians, and have been one of the most consistent devices for receiving messages and emails for the last ten years, even during an earthquake.
“RIM certainly has a reputation for being reliable when it comes to messaging and being secure and that’s what they’ve built their success on,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Teaneck New Jersey to Bloomberg Business Week.
RIM’s servers proved reliable despite the natural disaster, however many phone calls made on the Blackberry did fail during the quake.
RIM has suffered significant market loss recently thanks to competitors such as Apple with their iPhone handsets, and devices running Google Inc’s Android Software.
The Blackberry creator was once the leader in the smartphone market, and with this recent news they may have a better chance to regain that position than many expect.
According to Bloomberg Business Week, RIM’s stock rose 99 cents, or 3.7 percent to $27.50, at 4p.m. EST yesterday. Their stock reportedly lost 53 percent this year.
RIM plans on launching brand new versions of their popular Blackberry Bold and Torch lines this year.
The new Blackberry’s will all run on RIM’s new OS 7, which should give Blackberry users a significant speed boost while using the device, navigating the internet and performing various tasks.
They also announced new upcoming versions of their low-end Blackberry Curve line which will also run on OS 7.
The new Curve’s will go on sale in Canada this month and be available in the U.S. in September.