Two years, two outages, two iPhone launches, and one raised eyebrow
First let me say, this is complete and utter conjecture on my part and please ignore any typos :)
That being said, I could not keep my eyebrow from instinctively raising when I read that on Sept 21, 2012 (iPhone 5 launch day) RIM experienced a service outage in Europe and Africa. So, why would I have such a hard time keeping my eyebrows under control? Keep reading...
BlackBerry Outage 2011
As many of you surely remember, in the Fall of 2011 Research in Motion (RIM) experienced its worst service outage in the company's history.
The timeline of the 2011 BlackBerry service outage:
October 10, 2011 - RIM acknowledges that an outage has occured affecting users in Europe, Africe, and the Middle East
October 11, 2011 - Service is restored, but later a new outage occurs affecting users in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia
October 12, 2011 - The outage continues and spreads to North America
October 13, 2011 - All services are restored
On Oct 14, 2011, the iPhone 4S officially goes on sale -- less than 24 hours after BlackBerry services are finally restored.
BlackBerry Outage 2012
Fast-forward to September 2012 and a similar story begins to unfold. On September 21st, 2012 RIM acknowledges an outage affecting users in Europe and Africa, but unlike the 2011 outage, this one is contained and resolved fairly quickly, lasting only approximately 3 hours. The quick resolution this time around was likely due to improvements and adjustments made by RIM in response to the 2011 service meltdown that lasted an agonizing 3 days. So, let's step back and take a reasonable look at this...
Warning: Conjecture imminent!
Conjecture 2012
Apple is well-known for its marketing prowess, especially when it comes to their "i" line of products. One aspect of good marketing is to be opportunistic and strike at a time that will maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. However, being opportunistic, when it comes to marketing, requires a company to anticipate future events and plan marketing efforts and product launches at the best possible time to achieve the best possible results. In other words, it is very difficult for a company to see an opportunity and immediately respond -- it requires planning. What better way to anticipate a future event than to cause the event.
Apple is no stranger to dirty tactics, but are they capable of something this brazen? Probably not, but the timing is interesting and raises some questions.
All rational thinking, tech savvy individuals know that Apple uses the legal system as a business tool and attempts to destroy or diminish competing companies through patent litigation. Apple is also well known for keeping their product information, business practices, and other information locked up tighter than Ft. Knox, but after being in the media spotlight for several years, a company's true colors eventually become evident.
Despite Apple's, shall we say, agressive tactics and business strategy it is fairly unlikely they had anything to to do with any of RIM's recent outages, but given the cutthroat environment in the mobile industry, it would not surprise me in the slightest to find out Apple played some role.
Thoughts?