Blackberry Outage Good News For iPhones, Droids

I'm a Blackberry user, are you? Frustrated?

Today was day three of the biggest outage in years for BlackBerry users, and strained an already tenuous relationship fueled by the iPhone.

Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes the phones, said a crucial link in its European infrastructure failed Monday, and a backup didn't work either. The underlying problem has been fixed, but a backlog of e-mails and messages has built up that the company has yet to work down.

RIM is already struggling with a tablet that's been a dud and shares that are approaching a five-year low. The duration of this outage could force some businesses to wonder if BlackBerrys are just outdated.

Consumers are having second thoughts too, with many switching to the iPhone and the Droid.

One of the BlackBerry's big attractions is the BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM, like text messaging without the fees. That service was affected by the outage, and Apple Inc. is releasing software Wednesday for its iPhones that works like Messenger.

(From USA Today)