BlackBerry maker Research In Motion suffered service problems in the Middle East and Europe on Friday, just as its key rival Apple started sales of its new iPhone around the world.
"Some users in Europe, Middle East & Africa are experiencing issues with their BlackBerry service," the Canadian firm tweeted from its British twitter account.
Egyptian BlackBerry services appear to be working normally as of Friday afternoon, although some users reported problems on Thursday.
Last October a system-wide failure of the service left tens of millions of frustrated BlackBerry users on five continents without email, instant messaging and browsing.
It took days for RIM's chiefs to apologise over the problems and the company's handling of the issue was heavily criticised.
"This is an opportunity to demonstrate that RIM has learnt lessons from last year. If it is handled poorly again, it could see a faster erosion of its installed base," said Canalys analyst Pete Cunningham, acknowledging if problems last just a few hours the impact would be minimal.
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