KARACHI:
A technical glitch at the end of Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion (RIM) has restricted BlackBerry users to access its app store after using it for almost a day for the first time across Pakistan. App World – RIM’s official store for BlackBerry applications – was accessible across Pakistan on Tuesday evening but went down late Wednesday, marking an abrupt end to the jubilations of BlackBerry users.
Shortly after RIM enabled its official application store in Pakistan, BB users started downloading free apps causing an overload of traffic on RIM’s network, said a telecom official familiar with the matter. However, access to paid apps was intermittent as some users were able to purchase them while others complained they encountered problems creating a BlackBerry ID, a prerequisite for purchasing paid apps.
One user told The Express Tribune that despite creating an ID on BlackBerry’s official website, he was unable to purchase paid apps. After clicking on a confirmation link sent to his e-mail, the BlackBerry page said “the creation or modification of your of your email address is temporarily unavailable. We are working to re-enable this feature and apologise for any inconvenience. However, it further said that BlackBerry ID account was successful and you may use it to access BlackBerry services like App World.
Unlike those who faced problems with paid apps, Muneeb Gulzar, a businessman, was successful in downloading the infamous game Fruits and Ninja for $0.75.
Gulzar, however, expressed his disappointment over the shut down after a day. “If you check BlackBerry Messenger status, you will know people were happy for being gifted with the additional feature,” he said. App World made my phone feel like a turbocharged super car for a day, he said, while the shut down brought it down to a normal saloon car the next day.
The shutdown of App World rightly disappointed BlackBerry users who were hit hard by BlackBerry Messenger outages last year and were not compensated like users in other countries. One user tweeted, now that BlackBerry App World is now available in Pakistan, how do we access the free gift of $100 in credit in App World?
Whether or not BB users in Pakistan will be given $100 gift credit on the official store remains debatable but the good news for them is that RIM, in its official comment, hinted it will enable its official store anytime soon.
“We are currently still testing BlackBerry App World in Pakistan, but we will keep you posted on availability,” said Rabih Habayeb, Senior Account Manager at First&42nd – Dubai-based PR firm that manages media queries for RIM.
The PR firm, however, failed to give detailed answer to all the queries. However, the telecom official confirmed that the Canadian smartphone maker has opened its official app store for Pakistan.
It is only a matter of time before App World is accessible again, official said. “There are technical problems – especially pertaining to creation of BlackBerry ID – at the back end of RIM which they will nail soon,” official added.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 3rd, 2012.
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i am a hardcore user of BB, i was very auspicious and happy that BB App world is now available in Pakistan. But sad now its is again discontinued in Pakistan. i hope that RIM will understand the demand of the users and will resume App world accessibility.
so it was blackberry who blocked appworld in first not our carriers. they lost big chunk of market to kiddy android already thanks to their prejudice. i was able to use BB appworld for a day and next day it was off after updating itself. such a shame RIM could have made that kind of decision to block a 200million market from its app store when they alredy have half the apps compared to appstore. fortunately for them it doesnt matter too much for what it had left of their users like me in pak.
sad!
blackberry always wins.