BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion biffed its response to last week’s massive outage and worse yet, is coming up short at this week’s BlackBerry DevCon Americas conference. With every month that passes, the smartphone pioneer loses more runway, and with it the ability to carry the BlackBerry brand forward.

Last week’s major outage did no favors for BlackBerry’s already tarnished image. The company needed a strong response to the snafu and should feel tremendous pressure to deliver something meaningful in a few key areas.

Calling its half-hearted apology for last week’s outage a “Thank You Gift from BlackBerry” was poor form. First and foremost, BlackBerry users want their devices to work. A dozen free apps worth $100 will do nothing to keep customers happy. Rather than rewarding its dwindling base of loyal users with something meaningful, RIM is offering its customers apps like SIMS 3, Texas Hold’em Poker 2, Shazam Encore and iSpeech Translator Pro. Read more

Apple fired a rare miss last quarter with slowed growth, declining iPhone sales and a drop in profit. iPhone sales were pointedly down in the second half of the quarter after iOS 5 was announced and speculation of a new iPhone intensified.

As always, Apple is playing the slip off in a typically calm, cool and collected manner. The drop in iPhone sales was less than expected, according to executives, and CEO Tim Cook said he is “confident that (Apple) will set an all-time record for iPhone this quarter.”

iPhone sales were up 21% year-over-year to 17.07 million units, but down from the previous two quarters. Year-over-year iPad sales shot up 166% to a new high of 11.12 million, Mac sales jumped 26% to 4.89 million and iPod sales declined 27% to 6.62 million. Read more

Apple broke more records over the weekend, selling more than four million of its new iPhone 4S in its first three days on the market. The company also announced that more than 25 million customers are using iOS 5 five days after its release and more than 20 million customers have signed up for its iCloud service.

Apple served up more than 1 million pre-orders for the iPhone 4S in the first 24 hours and went on sell four times that amount over opening weekend.

Sales numbers did not disappoint, despite the issues Apple faced over the weekend as an untold number of users reported errors with the device’s new voice-activated service, Siri. Read more

Millions of BlackBerry users spanning at least four continents are without service for a third consecutive day. An untold number of customers, not all however, are unable to send messages, emails or browse the web in parts of North and South America, Africa, Middle East and Europe.

A little more than an hour ago, Research In Motion admitted that it’s still working to resolve the “service issue that many of our BlackBerry customers are experiencing.”

The early outages occurred Monday in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, but as of this morning they have reached the Americas — and they are ongoing. Read more

iPads generate more mobile traffic than all other iOS devices combined

Mobile devices comprised 6.8% of all online traffic in August 2011. Nearly two-thirds of that traffic came from mobile phones while tablets accounted for the remainder, according to a new report from comScore.

The number of U.S. subscribers consuming mobile media grew 19% in the past year to 116 million people. While the growth is noteworthy, it also highlights the large untapped market for mobile data that still exists. Read more

It’s what’s inside that counts. That’s the statement Apple Inc. is making with the new iPhone 4S.

It may look exactly the same as the iPhone 4, but the new iPhone 4S is rocking a re-engineered interior that Apple hopes will keep the iOS train humming along well through the next product cycle.

Apple is taking a gamble, albeit a safe and proven one, by not changing the design of the new iPhone. After the longest break yet between new iPhone releases (almost 16 months), public and industry expectations were set for an iPhone 5 — in other words, an iPhone that looks different and works different.

The iPhone 4S is coming to AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and for the first time, Sprint Nextel Corp. It goes up for pre-sale Friday and hits store shelves on Oct. 14. iOS 5 will be available as a free upgrade on Oct. 12. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

I switch smart phones like they’re going out of style. Mostly because they are always going out of style. I’ve broken more carrier contracts and paid for more devices at full retail price than I care to admit.

Last month, it all happened again. I’m one of those defectors who ditched their iPhones with AT&T Mobility and switched to Verizon Wireless.

I’ve been an on-again, off-again iPhone customer with AT&T Mobility through every version that Apple Inc. has released since the summer of 2007. I’ve had many ups and downs with the device and the quality of service AT&T Mobility provides. As a result, I have been tempted away various times along the way to other carriers and devices. But I kept coming back for more. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

I did it again. I bought another iPhone. This time it’s the same iPhone that I already own. Less exciting. Nothing new. Just the same old iPhone 4, but this time with Verizon Wireless.

Instead of waiting in line for maybe 10 grueling hours to get my hands on Verizon’s iPhone 4 today, I decided that having it in my hands before Mobile World Congress wasn’t worth it, so I pre-ordered online.

Sure I have to wait another week, maybe more, and I might even miss the multiple delivery attempts and have to pick it up in person at some shipping facility in a far-off industrial park. Either way, the money has been spent and the process has begun. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Apple Inc. (AAPL) had another outstanding quarter — this time raking in $6 billion in profit on $26.74 billion in revenues for the period ending Dec. 25, 2010. The company sold more iPhones, Macs and iPads in the three-month period than in any quarter before.

Apple sold 16.24 million iPhones and 7.33 million iPads. During an earnings call executives expressed confidence that the company could have sold more of both devices, particularly iPhones, if it have been able to meet the full backlog and demand.

More than half of the 19.45 million iPods sold during the quarter were iPod Touch. All told, Apple has sold a cumulative 160 million devices that run on iOS. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Though the two companies increasingly find themselves competing in the same markets and industries, Google Inc. and Apple Inc. appear to be playing nice on at least one front: iOS applications.

Whereas previously Apple blocked some of the applications submitted by Google, more of those apps are now sailing through to safer landings on users iOS devices. This change not only highlights Google and Apple’s delayed reluctance to see eye to eye for the benefit of their users, but also Google’s continued desire to reach mobile users beyond its Android platform. Read more