BlackBerry maker, Canada’s Research in Motion (RIM), is offering BlackBerry users free premium applications in an effort to appease customers after the service interruptions that affected users in parts of the world, including SA, last week.

RIM says the applications on offer are worth more than US$100 and will be offered free of charge to subscribers as an “expression of appreciation for their patience during the recent service disruptions”.

The apps will be made available to customers over the coming weeks via the company’s app store, BlackBerry App World. The apps will be available until 31 December 31. Not all of the apps on offer will work on all devices or all operating systems.

RIM says the complete selection of applications will become available for download over a period of four weeks beginning 19 October.

The company has not yet finalised the list of apps that will be offered, but says it will include games such as The Sims 3, Bejeweled, Nova, Texas Hold’em Poker 2, and Bubble Bash 2.

It will also include utilities such as Photo Editor Ultimate, DriveSafe.ly Pro, iSpeech Translator Pro, Nobex Radio Premium, Shazam Encore, and Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant.

RIM’s enterprise and individual customers will also be offered one month of free technical support. Current users of the service will be offered a complimentary one-month extension of their existing contract. — Staff reporter, TechCentral