Last week was one that BlackBerry would like to forget. The smartphone brand's critically important email servers failed users worldwide for several days, spawning severe criticism of parent company Research In Motion (RIM).
New online analysis by Meltwater Buzz, reveals the depth of ill feeling. RIM compounded the situation with a fumbling crisis response that saw long periods of silence interpersed with jargon-heavy, unintelligible statements.
It took three days for a RIM executive to make a public statement, and by the time that chief executive Mike Lazaridis eventually took to YouTube for an apology, much of the damage was already done. Online reaction was already coalesing around the merits of BlackBerry rivals such as Apple and HTC.
The infographic below illustrates online sentiment around BlackBerry's woes, demonstrating the clear need for a fast and helpful crisis response in a situation such as this. A failure to act can see issues spiral out of control, as RIM has now discovered.
