RIM's app-ology

Research In Motion (RIM) has apologised for last week’s Blackberry network outages by offering customers a selection of free apps valued at over $100, as well as one month’s free technical support for business customers.

The ‘premium’ apps, which will include iSpeech Translator Pro and Photo Editor Ultimate, as well as games such as Sims 3, Bejeweled and Texas Hold’em Poker 2, will be made available in the next few weeks, with the offer to run until the end of the year.

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis has also posted a video apology on the company’s website.

The company will be keen to quell disquiet in anticipation of its developer conference, which begins today.

Following last week’s outages, and generally sluggish sales, RIM will have to be on its game to prove to developers its platforms are viable. Here’s hoping they’ve got something special up their sleeves.