BlackBerry outage hits Europe, Mideast and Africa

Research In Motion reported a BlackBerry outage in parts of Europe, Mideast and Africa early this morning through its Twitter and Facebook accounts. This is not the way the BlackBerry maker wants to be remembered on the biggest product launch of the year, rival Apple's iPhone 5 begins selling in a few hours.

"We are currently experiencing a BlackBerry service issue impacting some users in Europe, Middle East and Africa," the company said in a statement.

BlackBerry says it is working urgently to fix the service.

"All relevant support teams are working to resolve the issue. We apologise to any customers who may be affected."