Can Research In Motion Make It Up to You?

Research In Motion (NAS: RIMM) wants to kiss and make up. It made a mistake, but it didn't mean anything by it. These things happen from time to time, but the company hopes that you'll forgive it eventually. After all, time heals all wounds, right?

RIM saw a massive service outage last week that affected millions of users spanning five continents, starting in Europe and spreading like a disease throughout Africa and the Middle East. It was the worst outage in the Canadian company's history and couldn't have happened at a worse time. On the eve of Apple's (NAS: AAPL) annual iPhone-launch weekend, the blackout may have coaxed some dejected BlackBerry users into making the switch.

As a peace offering, RIM is now making a dozen "premium" apps available for free in its BlackBerry App World store through the end of the year. The titles include popular games from Electronic Arts (NAS: ERTS) and Gameloft, in addition to a handful of productivity apps. The bundle of apps is valued upwards of $100 and is being given to users as an "expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions."

On top of that, enterprise customers who were adversely affected will be granted a month of free technical support.

The episode has overshadowed RIM's unveiling of a lackluster new social service called Tag that uses near field communications (NFC). Research In Motion doesn't have a lot going for it these days, and crippling service outages like this one will only exacerbate market-share losses at the hands of Apple and Google.

To all the BlackBerry users out there: What do you think? Will you accept RIM's peace offering? Did you get fed up and pick up an iPhone over the weekend? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributorEvan Niuowns shares of Apple, but he holds no other position in any company mentioned. Check out hisholdings and a short bio. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google and Apple.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of Google and Apple and creating a bull call spread position in Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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