<p>Computerworld - Research in Motion (RIM) CEO Thorsten Heins said that as many as 6% of BlackBerry customers in Europe and Africa may have seen up to a three-hour delay in getting and sending messages early Friday.</p><p>Heins released a statement about 11:30 a.m. ET apologizing twice to the customers affected. He also promised a full technical analysis of what happened, with a report to follow. RIM reported that the problems had stopped several hours earlier.</p><p>No data or messages were lost, Heins added. "I want to apologize to those BlackBerry customers in Europe and Africa who experienced an impact in their quality of service earlier this morning," he said in a message posted on RIM's UK Web site.</p><p>Some news reports in the UK said thousands of customers were affected with problems sending and receiving email and Blackberry Messenger instant messages. BBM is very popular in Europe and Africa, according to analysts.</p><p><a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231567/RIM_CEO_apologizes_for_short_messaging_disruption_Friday_in_Europe_and_Africa">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/66332-blackberry-users-hit-by-outage">BlackBerry users hit by outage</a> (TG Daily)</p><p><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rim-restores-blackberry-service-2012-09-21?link=MW_latest_news">RIM restores BlackBerry service</a> (MarketWatch)</p><p><a href="http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/09/21/as-apples-iphone-5-goes-sale-rim-sees-blackberry-services-go-emea-regions/">RIM Sees BlackBerry Services Go Down in EMEA Regions</a> (The Next Web)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=us&ncl=dXJnrip29zZTnuMXs7nppRaHX8wzM">836 additional articles.</a></p>