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Palm is attempting to turn RIM's recent woes to its advantage—by taking out a somewhat humorous full page ad in major newspapers across the country yesterday.

All BlackBerry e-mail messages must go through RIM before reaching their destination, which is why BlackBerry users across North America experienced a major BlackBerry blackout when a software update to RIM's central server went awry earlier this week.

A similar mob-e-mail outage occurred last April, with a number of smaller disruptions taking place between the two major ones.

According to Palm's ad and homepage, its smartphones offer a lot, "most importantly, uptime." In addition, you can "Connect to your Microsoft Exchange Server. No third-party servers and no nationwide blackouts."

Clicking on an image of the Treo 750 on the homepage leads you to a page in praise of Palm's asserted advantage of being "Direct" by removing middleware from the wireless e-mail and data access equation in an Exchange environment. It reads:

Help eliminate third-party email servers, hassles, and costs. Help maintain simplicity and control. Your company's Microsoft® Exchange Server provides a reliable foundation for a smart wireless deployment that leverages your company's existing infrastructure. No middleware. Simply add user-favorite Palm Treo smartphones, and you've got a voice and email solution that'll keep your work force in touch and productive—even on the move.

The most recent outage will certainly have a negative effect on RIM's reputation, which already took a hit because of last year's blackouts, Palm’s gone a long way to go to catch up to RIM, which remains the smartphone market leader in the U.S. and a major player globally.

Last quarter, RIM's BlackBerry devices accounted for 41 percent of smartphones sold in the U.S., followed by upstart Apple's 28 percent share with the iPhone and 9 percent for distant third Palm, according to Canalys.

Nokia continues to be the smartphone leader worldwide by country mile, however, followed far-off second RIM and third place Apple.