Last week, Research in Motion suffered a humiliating service outage that sent users to make fun of them on social networks.  The three-day service outage caused some businesses to lose money and because of this, even investors are not confident about RIM’s future.

After services were restored, RIM offered free premium apps for subscribers, free tech support for enterprise subscribers and compensation for the service providers who took the first hit from angry BlackBerry users.

RIM held their BlackBerry DevCon Americas in San Francisco Mariott Marquis from October 18-20 where early registrants were given a free PlayBook tablet.  During the conference, they introduced a new OS for BlackBerry and enticed app developers to make apps for BlackBerry.

BlackBerry BBX

The BlackBerry BBX is the next generation OS for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets that is a hybrid of the BlackBerry, QNX and HTML5.  They rolled all the best features into one OS to make one platform capable of giving the best service in connecting people, devices, content and services.

BBX will include HTML5 with BlackBerry® WebWorks™, Adobe® AIR®, Native C/C++, and the BlackBerry® Runtime for Android™ Apps. Apps compatible with the QNX platform will be compatible with the BBX.  Also, BBX will feature the new BlackBerry Cascades UI Framework for advanced graphics.  BBX will also expand the BlackBerry DNA of collaboration, communication and immediacy, with familiar “Super App” capabilities such as deep integration between apps, always-on Push services, BlackBerry security, the BBM™ Social Platform and more.

Though the new OS platform seems promising, some analysts are thinking that RIM’s move is a little too late as competition is clearly miles and miles ahead of them.  They have to cover a lot of ground in order to keep up with competition.

Though BBX has just been announced and is not yet out, it’s already facing a problem because of its name.  Basis International, a global software company, holds the trademark for BBx®, a computer language that enables programs to run in any software.  Basis is said to be taking legal actions to protect their name.

“We are fielding numerous customer inquiries voicing their confusion about the RIM announcement,” Nico Spence, the chairman and chief executive of Basis, said in a statement.

RIM has yet to receive notification from Basis and believe that it would not cause confusion since they are not in the same line of business.  Spence voiced out that BBx might actually be what RIM needs iin order to keep up with competition as this could possibly help them in their app developer woes.

“Ironically, BASIS’ BBx may aid RIM in its quest to grab a share of the application market for mobile devices in that any application created with BASIS’ BBx for the Android or iOS mobile devices will also run on BlackBerry products,” Spence said.

High Hopes For The Future

RIM’s new head of developer relations Alec Saunders challenged developers to make apps for RIM.  Though RIM suffered a 50% decline in sales in the US, there’s a growing market base outside of it as BlackBerry users increased from 50 million last year to 70 million this year.

“I want a team on the ground here in Silicon Valley, going to developer events and meeting with developers all the time,” Saunders said while attending his company’s BlackBerry DevCon conference. “There’s a giant perception gap. Nobody is telling our story and even we weren’t telling our story.”

Also, they enticed DevCon attendees to try out their Android compatible apps on the PlayBook equipped with the new BBX software located in a booth just for that purpose.  RIM stated that their Android apps will work with the software.  This could probably go well for developers as it eliminates the need for them to tweak their apps just so it would run on BlackBerry devices.  It cuts the cost and possibly double their revenue.

The PlayBook suffered much criticism when it launched since it lacked native email, calendar and contacts program though RIM promised that those will be available in the next upgrade, the PlayBook 2.0.  No specific date has been announced as to when the update will be available.

On a lighter note, one BlackBerry fan won tickets form him and his Apple-user buddy to attend the BlackBerry DevCon in San Francisco.  Julian Dias entered the CrackBerry Fanboy contest with his video of skydiving and while he was freefalling, he used his BlackBerry to text “I’m falling for BlackBerry!”  If that wasn’t enough to prove how much Dias loved his BlackBerry, I don’t know what is.  Dias is literally a BlackBerry diehard fan.  The purpose of the Dias’ jump wasn’t only for fun; they had a purpose in coming to the conference.  They want to pitch an idea, Voyage 662, to RIM as to how they could help the company.  The point of Voyage 662 is that in a span of two months, they will visit six countries in South America and give six families BlackBerrys so they could keep in touch with their families and friends in the US.  They think that the service outage needs to be replaced with positive advertisement and the best advertisement RIM could have is from users of the device.