RIM Shoots Itself in the Foot Again

For many smartphone fans, Friday will be fondly remembered as the day Apple (NAS: AAPL) put the iPhone 5 on store shelves. For others, the memory will be far less sweet.

Research In Motion (NAS: RIMM) damaged its hopes for a turnaround once again as scores of BlackBerry users saw a three-hour service outage on Friday morning. CEO Thorsten Heins apologized for delayed BlackBerry messages, noting that up to 6% of the total BlackBerry user base may have been affected.

I can't say for sure that this event drove BlackBerry users toward the nearest Apple store, but the temptation must have been great. After all, security experts now say iPhones are just as adept at sending secure messages as the BlackBerry ever was.

That removes one of the last reasons for enterprise-data managers to issue BlackBerry devices to their troops. Bringing your own iPhone or Android is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative to the old RIM default. Just look at the list of approved devices for Yahoo! (NAS: YHOO) employees -- iPhones and Androids aplenty and even a single Nokia (NYS: NOK) Windows model, but not a BlackBerry in sight.

Could you please remove that dagger from RIM's back, Ms. Mayer? It smarts a little.

Like I said, RIM couldn't have picked a worse time to show weakness if it tried. The Canadians are on a road to nowhere, and I'm only growing more convinced that the BlackBerry 10 platform will be too little, too late and that my bearish CAPScall on RIM will boost my CAPS score.

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