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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

As iPhone 5 launches, BlackBerry crashes

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 09/22/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

RESEARCH In Motion's reputation, and its shares, took another hit on Friday after the BlackBerry maker suffered an embarrassing service outage, the same day that Apple's new iPhone launched in stores.

Analysts were quick to note the bad timing of the outage on three continents, but they also said it's another reason to doubt RIM's ability to stay competitive.

"Oh, the irony of that," said William Blair & Co. telecom analyst Anil Doradla. "This is not a piece of news that they can afford, they need or they want at this time."

RIM's next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphones won't make their debut until early next year, missing this year's holiday sales season. The new phones were supposed to launch last year giving the Waterloo, Ont., company few new products to sell.

The BlackBerry outage affected email and text users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for a maximum of three hours, RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins said in a statement.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 22, 2012 B8

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