Research in Motion (RIM) announced its new operating system, BBX, at its annual developers conference on Tuesday. The new system will pull together existing BlackBerry elements with the best bits of its QNX system which it acquired last year through the purchase of QNX Software Systems.

The new operating system will be rolled out to all of BB’s devices including smartphones, tablets and built in systems. RIM believes BBX will offer a more consumer friendly platform while incorporating the reliability and security features it needs to keep its customers coming back.

Unfortunately for BlackBerry, timing wasn’t exactly perfect for this announcement and what should have been an exciting moment in the spotlight was overshadowed by the recent outage problems.

RIM’s co-CEO spoke briefly about the recent problems during the announcement and assured customers that it had done everything it could to restore service as quickly as possible. It seems though that their efforts were too little too late as almost every review of BB’s new operating system is peppered with comments about the service issues.

From a PR perspective, boasting about the reliability of your software when customers are still suffering the effects of a massive loss of service is a huge no-no. Not to mention the fact that any claims of your products around their reliability is going to be taken with a very large pinch of salt.

In terms of development though, the new OS does appear to offer a much more supportive and exciting environment for developers. However with the decision that BBX will not support traditional Java applications, this will more likely benefit Android developers than existing BlackBerry developers, who now face the prospect of having to learn a completely new development environment.

While this move seems to offer a more consumer friendly platform and the opportunity to begin competing with the likes of iPhone and Android, BB hasn’t forgotten its core client base. It’s security levels still means that devices running on its OS can get government clearances and are more easily adopted in highly regulated organisations. Which is why BlackBerry is still the device of choice in the NHS and central government institutions where data security is critical.

There is no news yet of an actual date for release but there’s talk of a beta version already available for tablet. It looks like there are some promising changes for customers but BB are leaving a few casualties in its wake.

Getting some useful and genuine feedback on BBX may take a while, once the dust settles and we all stop being quite so cynical about anything RIM claims to be reliable.

A little funny to end on (kindly provided by Daniel Rowles)

 

With many users now into their third day of prolonged service outage, Blackberry is hitting headlines all over the world for all the wrong reasons.

Apparently due to an issue with RIM’s hub in Slough (and I say apparently as nobody really knows) Blackberry services started going down on Monday of this week in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. While they came back up briefly yesterday, millions of users woke up this morning to find the problem was back and they were once again cut off from using email, messenger and the internet from their devices.

Given that Blackberry is the device of choice for people who spend their working life communicating on the go, the loss of service has meant huge disruption for many of the 70 million subscribers around the world.

While this is going to cause some rather disgruntled customers, the failure of Blackberry to engage in any form of dialogue with those affected has dealt a huge blow to their reputation.

As consumers we can be quick to complain when an issue arises and easily forget the years of wonderful, uninterrupted service we’ve become accustomed to. But we can also be a forgiving bunch if we believe those responsible are doing everything they can to fix the problem.

Sticking your head in the sand and passing the buck is no way for a company of this size to behave, or to treat the millions of customers its spent years building a relationship with. And with the outage now affecting the US, you can bet they’re not going to take this lying down.

Blackberry’s main form of communication around the issues is its blog which you could hardly call regular or at all detailed. The last post stated in two lines that they were aware of the issue and they will keep customers updated. That comment was posted over five hours ago.

Blackberry seem to be keen to point out that the issue seems to lie with its service provider Research In Motion, but its customers don’t have their relationship with RIM and that’s not who they look to when things go wrong.

For a company of this size with the resources at their disposal, keeping their customers informed and making them feel supported should be a walk in the park. Instead its chaos and users are turning to Twitter for answers. Not great for Blackberry’s reputation or for anyone considering opting for a device which relies on their system.

Blackberry seem confident they won’t lose any customers over this, but perhaps that is more to do with the lack of a suitable alternative than a true belief in the company and its products. Very poor effort BB, you really could have done better.

Editor: Between the lack of confidence that this episode has caused consumers, the gradual 80% drop in share price and the lack of traction gained by the PlayBook (which is a shame as it’s actually a great little product in context), many are understandably concerned with Blackberry’s future.

The reality however is slightly more complex. The massive organisations that use Blackberry are unlikely to change supplier easily or quickly. However the business consumers that have a choice may choose a different upgrade path next time they change phones. Are this is the problem for Blackberry. They may not see the consequences of this problem for months to come and they could see a gradual decline in their user base.

There are plenty of signs that one of Blackberry’s very active investors is moving for some transformational change for the company. This may lead to a more dynamic and innovative culture which can only be a god thing for consumers.