Will frustrated customers ditch BlackBerry?

Research In Motion's recent network troubles could be a boon for Apple and Google as frustrated BlackBerry customers consider alternative smartphones.

The worldwide BlackBerry outage that has plagued Research In Motion this week has left millions of subscribers in dozens of countries without access to e-mail and other messaging services for days. And the outage, which is likely one of the biggest in RIM's history, could tempt some of the BlackBerry faithful to ditch their "crackberries" for competing products form Apple and Google.

Angry customers have already taken to social networking sites such as Twitter to vent their frustration. And more than a few have said they're ready to give up on the BlackBerry.

It's hard to say whether customers such as these will actually follow through on their threats to leave the BlackBerry, which is still very popular among corporate customers, government agencies, and other business customers.

But as competition in the smartphone market intensifies, it's clear that the outage couldn't have come at a worse time for RIM. Not only has the company seen profits sink and revenues fall as sales of the BlackBerry weaken in key markets, like the U.S., but executives are also facing challenges from activist investors who want big changes at the company.

Meanwhile, competitors, such as Apple, Samsung, HTC and others, are gearing up for a big holiday season of smartphone sales. Apple in particular is a significant threat. The much-anticipated new iPhone 4S goes on sale Friday. Pre-orders for the device, which started last week, have already broken records. And even though some consumers were disappointed that the new iPhone won't sport a new design or support 4G LTE network technology, analysts are still expecting it to be a hot seller.

Google and its many partners that use its Android operating system are also expected to have strong sales over the next few months as companies, such as Samsung and HTC release new Android smartphones.

"It's certainly not a good time for an outage like this to happen," said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. "I don't think I'd go as far as to say this is the straw that breaks the camel's back for most customers, but it's hugely damaging, especially in light of the current competitive landscape."