Although Research In Motion (RIM), owners of Blackberry, has been giving compensation to its customer across the globe, over system-wide failure of the service which left tens of millions of frustrated BlackBerry users on five continents without email, instant messaging and browsing, in the US have taken the company to court.RIM's co-CEOs across the world had apologized to millions of BlackBerry customers for the four-day outage that tarnished the company's image and set back its drive to catch up with Apple and other smartphone rivals.But last week end, a suit was instituted against the company in a Federal Court in Santa Ana, California on behalf of all U.S. BlackBerry owners with an active service agreement at the time of the email, internet and messaging interruptions.The users accused RIM of breach of contract, negligence and unjust enrichment.Also in Canadian, a lawsuit had been filed in Quebec Superior Court, on behalf of all Canadian BlackBerry owners with an active service agreement.RIM failed to compensate BlackBerry users with refunds for loss of service and must 'take full responsibility for these damages,' the lawsuit reads.The U.S. lawsuit was brought by Sherman Oaks, California resident, Eric Mitchell. While Mitchell did not sign a service contract directly with RIM, he paid the company fees for BlackBerry device through a mobile carrier Sprint (S.N), the complaint said.Because of the global service outage that began on October 11 and continued until October 14, Mitchell was unable to use emails and other communications 'in real-time, without delay, reducing and interfering with his productivity and causing him damage and loss of money,' the lawsuit said.U.S. plaintiffs are seeking damages including cash compensation for service fees along with attorneys' fees and legal expenses.The U.S. complaint estimates that RIM earns at least $3.4 million per day in service revenue, collected from customers through carrier networks including Sprint and Verizon.The size of the potential class of U.S. consumers would include 2.4 million California residents alone, the lawsuit said.Meanwhile RIM has put on hold a software upgrade for the BlackBerry PlayBook that was expected to include dedicated e-mail won't come until February, missing holiday sales as RIM tries to revive demand for the tablet.According RIM, the PlayBook OS 2.0 upgrade won't have BlackBerry Messenger, the free instant-messaging service that has fuelled sales outside North America , the Waterloo, Ontario-based company saying that the Messenger will be in a later upgrade.RIM is counting on the new QNX software that is used for PlayBook and will power future BlackBerry phones to encourage programmers to build more applications for its devices. The company's phones have lost market share to Apple Inc-operated iPhone and handsets based on Google Incorporated Android software, which offer a wider range of applications. That drop led to investor demands for RIM to shake up its strategy and management.The company had promised in September that the upgrade would be demonstrated at last week's BlackBerry developer conference and released 'thereafter,' causing speculation that it would arrive in time for the holiday shopping season to spur PlayBook sales.The tablet's shipments dropped by more than half last quarter following criticisms of its e-mail shortcomings and lack of applications. Deliveries to retailers such as Best Buy Co. fell to 200,000 from 500,000 in the previous quarter as Apple shipped 9.25 million of its market-leading iPad.
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