That’s it? You cut off our email and our web-browsing for three days and you offer us Angry Birds (or Bubble Bash 2, pictured) as compensation?
There must be some mistake here, Rim.
Offering a few BlackBerry apps for a day’s lost email is like offering me a ferry ticket to Swansea in exchange for a cancelled flight to Paris. I just don’t want the freebie.
Neither, I suspect, will many of the other millions of annoyed customers, whose email and internet business were seriously disrupted last week.
But don’t just take my word for it about the undesirability of your crappy offer. A BlackBerry owner is about ten times less likely to download an app to their device than an iPhone or Android owner is.
And it’s no mystery why. You, Rim, have a fraction of the number of apps that either Apple or Google have in their App Store and Market store, respectively. Those that are there often cost at least €5 each, way more than the 80 cents you spend on thousands of usable iPhone apps.
Even when you find something that looks interesting, the best you have to use it on is a small screen with a fiddly keyboard.
So you’ll forgive us, Rim, if we can’t help suspecting that you’re trying to kill two birds with one stone, here. You’re ‘apologising’ by trying to subsidise an unarguably lame part of your business.
Seriously? This is not a great way to win back friends. Especially seeing as many of your customers are on the cusp of leaving you anyway.
In the last six months alone, your BlackBerry market share in the US smartphone market has dropped from 24 per cent to 19 per cent (with Android market share going in almost exactly the opposite direction).
The same trend can be detected here in Ireland. Androids and iPhones are now becoming the default smartphones, even in conservative companies.
So spare us your mediocre apps offer, Rim. Give us a week’s free credit with our operator, instead. Better still, give us a month’s credit. It’s about the only shot you have of retaining business in the long run.
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