Now here’s an interesting bit that pretty much came out of no where. According to GigaOM, RIM is not only working with The Astonishing Tribe for the updated BlackBerry user interface but also an Ontario-based design firm known as YOU i Labs. For those of you who aren’t familiar with YOU i Labs, they helped develop the front-end user experience for HTC Sense. Apparently RIM almost acquired this company but ended up developing some sort of partnership. It wouldn’t surprise me if they do end up acquiring them though since they’ve already acquired a few. From Om:
My sources in the mobile design industry have indicated that a deal was in the works between the two companies. Initially it seemed that RIM was going to buy YOU i Labs, but in the end it turned out to be a significant partnership between the two companies.
The deal would be a boost for RIM, which has been focusing more on improving the user experience on its devices. RIM, last December, bought The Astonishing Tribe or TAT, a Swedish UI design firm to help improve tablet and smartphone UI design. YOU i Labs develops user experience and interface technologies for mobile devices of all kinds including tablets, smartphones and other mobile electronics. The company boasts that nearly 500 million devices are running software developed by the company.
Also according to GigaOM, YOU i Labs works closely with Teknision, a Taiwanese company that designs the Playbook UI. For more info on YOU i Labs check out their site at youilabs.com or watch a video about them from Ontario Innovation below. I’ve also included a presentation video which includes a talk by Teknision’s and YOU i Labs Presidents, Gabor and Jason.
What do you think about RIM’s rumored partnership with the developers of HTC Sense? Whatever they end up producing (if this rumor holds true), I hope it’s uniquely awesome.
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