BlackBerry Blackout Reaches U.S.

In a BlackBerry service update on its Web site, BlackBerry-maker RIM acknowledged Wednesday that service in the U.S. has been hit by the massive service outage and service disruption the struggling smartphone maker has experienced worldwide since Monday.

"BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas may be experiencing intermittent service delays this morning," BlackBerry wrote. "We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. We will provide a further update as soon as more information is available."

RIM said fixing the BlackBerry blackout is its "number one priority" and the company is "working night and day to restore all BlackBerry services to normal levels."

The outage stretching to North America, and taking down service in the U.S., Canada and Latin America that has crippled service in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), is the latest page in a three-day struggle for BlackBerry to fix service issues that have impacted millions. Globally, BlackBerry service has stumbled and users have had trouble sending and receiving e-mail and accessing the Internet.

BlackBerry customers first reported e-mail and Web issues on Monday. The following day, RIM said that its failover protection that was supposed to kick on in the event of a disruption had itself failed.

"The messaging and browsing delays that some of you are still experiencing were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure," RIM wrote. "Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to many of you and we will continue to keep you informed."

RIM's BlackBerry outage is the latest black-eye suffered by the mobile pioneer, which has struggled to regain traction in a market now dominated by rivals the Apple iPhone and Google Android. And a global BlackBerry service outage couldn't come at a worse time, with Apple preparing to ship the latest version of the iPhone, the iPhone 4S, this week. Within 24 hours of becoming available for pre-order, the iPhone 4S sold more than 1 million units.

RIM is also fighting to stay afloat in the increasingly important tablet market, also dominated by Apple and Android, and RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook came up short as true contender when it was released in April.

As a result of its struggles, RIM cut 2,000 jobs and shuffled its executive ranks earlier this year as the beleaguered BlackBerry brand buckled under competitive pressure and slow growth.