February 20th, 2008

Remember this, BlackBerry: when it comes to customer communications, it's NOT all about the carriers

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 9:16 pm

Categories: Carriers, News, Outages

Tags: RIM BlackBerry, Outage, Carrier, Handhelds, Hardware, Russell Shaw

Once again, there were scattered BlackBerry service outages yesterday. This time, it was maintenance on the BlackBerry Internet Service side of the business. The one that forwards your other email account messages to your BlackBerry.

Unfortunately, yesterday proved that when it comes to letting customers know what the you-know-what is going on, BlackBerry’s notification processes are extremely flawed.

These outage notification processes seem to entirely consist of:

Email alerts directly from RIM to key commercial accounts.

There doesn’t seem to be a system in place for letting smaller accounts, and individuals who access BlackBerry services via their cell carrier from knowing what is going on.

No “we have reports of scattered BlackBerry outages” notifications on the BlackBerry and RIM sites. There also doesn’t seem to be a regular structure in place for letting carriers know of these disruptions in a manner that would enable these carriers to post outage-related notifications and updates on their own sites.

These have been flaws ever since I can remember.

Plainly, these flaws call not only for engineering new business processes that let all BlackBerry customers know about outages.

If it means taking a few carriers by the scruff of the neck and getting them in the customer alert loop, then so be it.

I still have my doubts this will be done right away. Even if the will to do so was there, BlackBerry is so subservient to their carriers I doubt they lack the will or the vision to architect subscriber alert systems such as the type I am proposing here.

February 20th, 2008

Numerous BlackBerry BIS service outages reported

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 9:30 am

Categories: News, Outages

Tags: RIM BlackBerry, Outage, Handhelds, Hardware, Russell Shaw

Numerous posters on BlackBerry board Pinstack are reporting some BlackBerry BIS service outages.

“I love my bb, but this is getting ridiculous,” one poster writes.

I beg to agree.

Update: Reports are coming in pointing to issues with “scheduled maintenance,” but generally attesting to network back up around 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. 

February 19th, 2008

Analyst: BlackBerry service glitches ignite "concerns," but no harm done (yet)

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 8:12 am

Categories: Corporate Stuff, News, Outages

Tags: Research In Motion Ltd., Network Operations Center, RIM BlackBerry, Sales Strategy, E-mail, Manufacturing, Handhelds, Sales, Online Communications, Hardware

I’ve just been sent a copy of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion stock analyst Mike Abramsky’s brand new, quite detailed analysis on RIM.

There’s plenty to chew on in this RBC Capital Markets report.

The first thing I wanted to know is Abramsky’s take on what effect, if any, the Feb.11 BlackBerry service outage will have on RIM’s business.

Summary: the incident reignites “concerns,” but wont effect sales of new BlackBerrys.

On Feb 11, RIM suffered a service disruption, leaving 8M BlackBerry users in the Americas without service for 3 hours, due to a problem with a system upgrade intended to increase capacity. The outage offers ST headline risk and reignites concerns over dependencies on RIM’s service, but is unlikely in our view to affect sales momentum (RIM’s last disruption was 10 months ago).

Abramsky then gives us some info on the Network Operations Center (NOC) where the outage occurred.

We est. RIM’s centralized NOC architecture now handles est. up to 1-2B emails per day (75-150 emails/day/user x 12M subs) or equivalent to 10%+ of global phone traffic, growing at 72% CAGR. The NOC also provides RIM with its competitive advantages — push email, security, bandwidth efficiency, etc. and offloads overhead from internal email servers, which are often less reliable.

Hmm, quite a busy place.  Apparently too busy to institute robust redundancies?

February 12th, 2008

BlackBerry: outage probably caused by data routing system upgrade glitch

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 3:44 pm

Categories: News, Outages

Tags: Upgrade, RIM BlackBerry, Outage, Manufacturing, Handhelds, Hardware, Russell Shaw

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has just said an early investigation is pointing to a problem with an upgrade of a data routing system.

The upgrade was part of an ongoing effort to expand capacity for long-term growth, it noted.

More as we learn more.

February 12th, 2008

RIM CEO implies touchscreen BlackBerry is possible

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 7:17 am

Categories: Corporate Stuff, News

Tags: Touch Screen, Research In Motion Ltd., RIM BlackBerry, Keyboards, Monitors & Displays, Handhelds, Hardware, Peripherals, Components, Russell Shaw

Last week, I made a post uncovering the a just-published BlackBerry Patent application for technology that would enable a touchscreen BlackBerry.

Well, today at the Mobile World Congress, Jim Balsillie, the co-CEO of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion strongly implied that this could very well happen.

Balsillie was asked by Reuters news reporter Sinead Carew if such a touchscreen was possible.

“For sure we’re looking at all kinds of different device packaging and presentation,” Balsillie told Reuters.

“I think getting religious on packaging is not the way to go,” he added. “It’s really user preference-oriented.”

February 11th, 2008

Source tells me: IP address glitches likely a factor in today's BlackBerry outages

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 6:25 pm

Categories: News, Outages

Tags: IP, IP Address, RIM BlackBerry, Outage, Network Technology, Networking, Russell Shaw

A representative of BlackBerry traffic analysis solutions provider Zenprise softwarei just got back to me with the scoop of some diagnostics that are pointing to at least one problem likely at the root of  today’s bad BlackBerry North American services outage:

Basically there are two paths (IP addresses) in North America to connect to the RIM network.  According to diagnostic tests run by Zenprise software, one IP address was refusing connections to come through causing enterprise users to be impacted.  A few points to note:

* Any users on the working IP address experienced little to no service interruption

* Organizations that reported intermittent email activity are the result of switching between the two IP addresses.

Still working on learning more. But the problem does seem to be dissipating as I report this.

February 11th, 2008

RIM: here's what's going on with the service outage (and it ain't good)

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 3:06 pm

Categories: News, Outages

Tags: Research In Motion Ltd., RIM BlackBerry, Outage, Handhelds, Hardware, Russell Shaw

This from BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion:

BlackBerry subscribers may be unable to send or receive messages. Subscribers may also be unable to register their device, roam in another location, or use other services such as Internet browsing.

BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers may be unable to use the BlackBerry Internet Service web site or perform activities such as creating new accounts, accessing their Internet mailbox, integrating third-party email accounts, or viewing email attachments.

Devices may not receive new service books. BlackBerry Connect and BlackBerry-enabled devices that require a new PIN may be unable to receive the PIN.

BlackBerry Enterprise Servers may be unable to connect to the BlackBerry Infrastructure.

Wireless service providers and device resellers may be unable to use BlackBerry administration web sites or perform activities such as creating subscriber accounts or provisioning services for subscribers.

You know, starting to think this stuff is happening a bit too often.

Do you agree?

February 11th, 2008

RIM: "Critical Severity" BlackBerry outage

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 2:22 pm

Categories: News, Outages

Tags: Research In Motion Ltd., RIM BlackBerry, Outage, E-mail, Manufacturing, Handhelds, Online Communications, Hardware, Russell Shaw

Sounds serious, and it is.

As an AT&T Mobility BlackBerry subscribver, I first started to pick up something wrong when I sent some photos of me swimming in a spa pool yesterday to some of my other email addys.

They aren’t getting thru.

But it’s not just me. Reuters just moved this:

E-mail service of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones experienced a “critical severity outage” on Monday, the company told clients in an e-mail.

“This is an emergency notification regarding the current BlackBerry Infrastructure outage,” stated an e-mail from RIM support account manager Bryan Simpson. The e-mail said the outage affected enterprise clients and “users of the Americas network.”

BlackBerry forum Pinstack has more.

January 31st, 2008

Four photos, user manual excerpts about BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 11:28 am

Categories: News

Tags: Device, Gateway Inc., RIM BlackBerry, Photograph, Handhelds, Hardware, Russell Shaw

The U.K.-Toronto-based Financial Post reports that BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion is planning an accessory known as the BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway.

The device is said to connect to a stereo while, at the same time, Bluetooth technology is employed to play music files from a multimedia-capable BlackBerry.

The relevant section of the User Manual, as newly posted on the FCC Web site, tells us that:

The BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway is designed to enable wireless transmission of music or other audio files from your BlackBerry device to your home or portable stereo.

The BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway uses Bluetooth technology to establish a wireless connection with your BlackBerry device. After you pair the BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway with your BlackBerry device, you can connect to the BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway when the device is within range of your BlackBerry device (a typical range is approximately 10 meters).

BlackBerry Curve would be one of those devices.

“This is huge,” the Financial Post’s David George Cosh quoted Carmi Levy, senior vice-president of strategic consulting for AR Communications Inc., as saying. “This really is the first tangible evidence that has been bubbling under for some time, but RIM has been really quiet about bringing that to fruition.”

Pictures? There are four on the FCC site. Come along and I will show them all to you.

That’s the BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway.. Brush up on your metric measurements.

Another, broader view.

Yes, the BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gatewayt has a label, and is made in China.

One more….

Um, “port-land.”

January 3rd, 2008

SlingPlayer software to be announced for BlackBerry Pearl 8120

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 10:01 pm

Categories: BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Software, News

Tags: Software, BlackBerry Pearl, RIM BlackBerry, Tools & Techniques, Handhelds, Management, Hardware, Russell Shaw

Colleague John Falcone reports that Sling Media-  has confirmed a new update of its SlingPlayer software will be announced for BlackBerry.

The release will enable SlingMedia to streamlive TV to be streamed from any Slingbox model over  a 3G or WiFi connection to BlackBerry Pearl 8120’s.

The software, which will be priced at a one-time $30 fee, will be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. It’s similar to SlingPlayer software already available for Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian phones.

Public release is expected by the end of 2008.

Oh wait, now I can say “this year.”