Late last month, the BlackBerry Bold 9790 was introduced in Jakarta, Indonesia, and drew quite the crowd on launch day thanks to the half-off sale they were offering the first thousand people in line. Unfortunately, the queuing system was a complete mess, and some people got injured as the throng grew restless. Now it looks like RIM’s Andrew Cobham, the BlackBerry exec for the region, has been barred from leaving the country as authorities investigate charges of negligence relating to the the device launch. Terry Burki, a security consultant hired on to help take care of the event, is in the same boat.
While this isn’t quite as bad as the two RIM guys who forced a plane to land early because they were drunk and rowdy, but RIM should have had their logistics nailed down for a launch of this magnitude. Indonesia is one of BlackBerry’s biggest markets, and if they’re going to be selling phones half off in an area with an area with a ridiculously dense population, they shouldn’t have been surprised about the turnout. Apparently Cobham could earn himself a maximum of nine months in prison if the negligence charge goes through, not to mention an uncertain future with RIM after marring the company’s reputation with some very loyal BlackBerry users.
At the very least we don’t have to worry about BlackBerry launches creating unmanageable crowds anywhere else in the world, eh?
[via Jakarta Post]