RIM acquires The Astonishing Tribe (TAT), the SWAT team of UI design

By on Dec 2, 2010 at 7:50 AM
Breaking December 2, 2010

RIM’s upcoming QNX-based OS is about to get a swift kick in the UI, as the company announced its acquisition of The Astonishing Tribe on Thursday. Also known as TAT, the team is renowned for its stunning UI work that often includes unique concepts that never manage to find their way to production devices. While TAT has done a great deal of work across several markets including automotive and consumer electronics, mobile platforms user experiences is where they shine and as any BlackBerry user will tell you, RIM needs a lot of help in that department. Well, BlackBerry fans… help has most definitely arrived because TAT is as good as it gets. We can’t wait to see what this talented team of seasoned veterans can do for the PlayBook and for RIM’s future phones.

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  • Oye Consolte!

    Ok good. Also hire a team of smarter people who know how to beef up phone hardware too. Its embarassasing that there’s not enough memory to run one app on these sad phones.

    • Umm

      I currently have 12 apps running in the background

      so you were saying what?

      • mLive12

        You can multitask, but it’s a laggy mess.

      • Oye Consolte!

        Are your twelve apps connected to one app? Probably are. Let me guess, SocialScope.

        Your welcome.

      • Moosh

        You totally sound like a numbers sucker brand whore.

        The guy who will wear an Armani shirt, even if it’s flourescent pink with evergreen trim…but hey, it’s Armani.

        You’re a sucker, who falls for marketing speak and rhetoric, rather than looking at the “whole” solution.

        I’m curious to see if you wll champion the PlayBook, considering it outclasses Galaxy Tab’s and iPad’s specs?

        And why is it so hard for you to believe that “business” people ie., can be anyone who has a job that let’s them communicate with the outside world, actually don’t want, or need the ability to play Modern Warfare 3D on their smartphones???? Is it also a big shock to you that many adults actually DO NOT play video games?

        Go back to your couch that sits in front of your 63 inch LED TV and work on your Black Ops ranking, while shoving pizza down your throat in between “missions”.

      • ChicagoV

        Well actually, I have Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Pandora, Scoremobile, BBM, and Gtalk all running. No lag at all. Keep talking about something you don’t know anything about.

      • ChicagoV

        And don’t even start about games on a phone. I have a laptop and a PS3 at home for games. I need my phone for communication. I’m not 6 anymore and therefore don’t need to game whenever I leave my house.

    • KCRic

      I agree that they needed more ram, faster cpu, and a larger vm; they still run (or did before I went to android) plenty of apps all at once. Since RIM is geared towards business and government, I don’t think they care if you can twit about you twat all damn day or not.

  • Cory

    I guess this means that a new QNX based phone from RIM is still a ways off if the UI team “just arrived!”

  • Max

    You can put lipstick on a pig and its still a pig. Too little too late. Losing market share fast. Blackberry tech morons shrinking in number.

  • GalaxyTab

    I wonder what this means for all the third party work they’ve done and are doing? Will RIM let them continue?

    I know they recently released a few (quite decent) android live wallpapers.

  • C86themes

    wow its amazing on how little minded you commenters are… look at the big picture ya idiots!

    ya the past hardware would have been better in term of specs, but its not needed using the java platform… when they release QNX on the playbook and other device down the road, i’m sure they will be close if not better then half of the android phone specs out there

    RIM buying Tat is a smart move, who knows what they have planned for them… it could be UI design and well for all you know this could be the team that designs the BBs of the future…

    Quit bashing shit you have no ideas about… all you know is they bought them…. and FYI RIM isnt loosing as much market share as the media seems to say… do some research yourself and see, dont really on media to tell you what the stats are… if you do that all the time, i weep for society…

    that is all

    • http://twitter.com/urbanglowcam Cameron

      Damn well put. I completely agree.

    • James

      Better hardware wasn’t needed?? The lagging issues I had on my 8330 and 9550 would say otherwise.

      • Rodrigo

        Agreed. I would think a BB theme maker would be the first person to cry about BB performance issues. I shudder thinking about the lag, hour clock, and host of other issues that custom themes did to my 8830 and 9530.

    • Oye Consolte!

      RIM is doing everything last minute.

      They’ve been losing marketshare. To Android. To Apple.

      If you can’t read the fine print on the stats of their numbers, I weep for you too. Just because its a Java platform, doesn’t mean it doesn’t need an upgrade in hardware to make it perform better, because all the freeze ups and re-boots that have to be done, I find it astounding if you think it doesn’t.

      • KCRic

        Kind of like the dreamcast came out first, then the ps2 ‘last minute’. Look what happened there. Everyone ran out and got a dreamcast and it was a big hit. Then along game the ps2 with everyone saying ‘too little, too late’ well from my knowledge sega doesn’t make gaming consoles anymore.

        The best company won’t be the first or flashiest. It’s the one that sits on the sideline waiting and watching as other companies battle it out and make mistakes. So all of you may say RIM is too late but I think they’re being smart. They are not some 16 year olds new craze, they are for business. They can’t have the same flaws that android and apple have.

        So just sit back and enjoy the show. It’s about to get really interesting for the next year or two.

      • http://twitter.com/livingbasehead Shelton

        You want to talk numbers….

        Rim stock currently is trading around 65 bucks a share at the start of October it was around 50 thats a 15 dollar increase. 8 out of 10 phones sold to most corperate customers in the way of smartphones are Blackberrys.

        Im not saying Rim makes the best phones spec wise even ui wise. Personally I prefer my iphone to my curve. simply for the reason it elimates me carrying around my ipod.

        and further more tossing around the 3g thing is rediculous.. the american carrier for the most part are not actually saying what 3g means. do you have a clue what it means? other than things are faster? There was actually a excellent arcticle on here about this..

      • Oye Consolte!

        Who said anything about 3G? Now your just jumping the gun on moronic statements.

      • http://twitter.com/livingbasehead Shelton

        @oye Consolte sorry friend not every thing is about you.

        Techjunkieforlife

        “I see a few checks missing, a tablet OS (an unreleased one at that) does not a new powerful OS make. Until it’s actually out and running on a phone you can check that box, no one has seen that to date. And I do hope your right about them being all QNX and LTE by the summer, but blimey look how long it took RIM to move into 3G. The Bold 9k was their first and it was only released a little over 2 years ago on AT&T, so honestly I’m not holding my breath waiting for RIM to do what they need to and neither should anyone else. ”

    • http://twitter.com/mfg68 Matt Galo

      Says a BB theme maker lol

    • Anonymous

      They’re starting to lose market share and will lose even more as the years go by. The younger generation has gone Android and iPhone and unless RIM wakes up the BB will eventually become known as the future flip phone that grandma and grandpa use.

  • Agrjack

    Not enough memory? Slow processor? Wake up. I don’t care about a touchscreen and a farting app. I want a phone that does email and text well. I want (and have) a blackberry. There are still many of us that care little about Android and Apple’s phone. The whole idea of mobile computer is great and you should enjoy yourselves. Some of us don’t care and want a battery that can last a day or two.

    • Oye Consolte!

      Any phone can do that. You are a small percentage of users who deny the fact that your phone under performs when you need it most. If RIM could of produced a phone, much like an Android device or a Palm device, people wouldn’t be complaining.

      You don’t speak for everyone.

      • Lmao

        More to the point, if RIM had a device that performed like any high end Android smartphone or an iPhone, he would be here gloating about how great RIM was and how much better than those two platforms because blah, blah, and blah. His rant on “we don’t care” is more like an attempt at pretending that he’s not bothered his wife has a hot personal trainer who looks 3X as good as he does.

      • voiceOFreason

        No, you guys just can’t get it through your thick skull that some people don’t give a s**t about how much memory their phone has, or their resolution is higher than yours, or my processor is better than his processor. It’s all elementary school I’m better than you crap. Some people really just want a phone that does a few things and does those things well. They don’t want fart apps, games, video editing software or anything like that. For these people – and it’s a bigger percentage than you think – a blackberry is the perfect device.

        BTW – when one company announces they’ve purchased another company, they have already been engaged with them for quite some time. TAT may have already been contracted out by RIM to do UX work before mgmt decides it makes more sense to just purchase the company and bring the talent on board. TAT influences will be seen in RIM devices sooner than you think.

      • zukidrvr

        And RIM is still shipping over 4 million devices every month…

    • Anonymous

      It’s funny you mention not enough memory, as that has been a major bone in the throat of every Blackberry user up until the last couple of devices. All those memory leaks causing battery pulls and choices over what themes to run and apps to store. Maybe if you took off the rose tinted glasses while your phone is taking 5 mins to boot up, you might see these things are issues.

      • zukidrvr

        BlackBerry 6 takes under two minutes to boot up.

      • Anonymous

        Thats funny, 2 whole minutes like thats fast or something! You can shutdown and reboot a WP7 device in half that time.

      • litskinitalian

        You say 5 minutes to start up? This must be spoken from an Android or Apple fan who doesnt worry about securing your info. The reason BlackBerry takes so long to start up is because it is busy encrypting everything on your device. Have you seen how you can post a picture from your phone on Facebook and cyber theives/criminals are using the gps data from that picture to rob people when they’re not home. I dont know about you but 5 minutes to hard reset a device is a small sacrifice compare to replacing a lifetime of memories and items. Not to mention 5 minutes is only on a hard reset/battery pull. Otherwise, the Power button turns the device on instantly. Ignorance is bliss but know what you’re talking about before you open your mouth.

      • Anonymous

        So what you saying is you agree that it takes 5 mins to reboot your phone, so what I didn’t do was justify it like you did so people didn’t get butt hurt about the truth? Tell me again what is not truthful about my comment as you agreed with it.

  • Dragon

    Let’s look at the market objectively. Here’s what we know; LTE is the real game changer on most major carriers. By 2H 2011 we should see a complete refocus of the mobile market around LTE. RIM and most other major manufacturers have been focused on THAT market (LTE) for a while now–RIM for a solid 3 years of development.

    The last two years of RIM devices (or arguably longer) have been incremental tweaks of their reliable and secure OS. They had an atrocious browser, but they bought Torch Mobile to build a new one and it is competitive finally. Now they have the first QNX operating system andbit looks like it will be a quantum leap forward and become an excellent OS.

    Now RIM buys one of the best UI teams. The real weaknesses of RIM’s devices are being addressed and the results look very good so far. RIM remains the most secure platform, one of the most reliable, one of the least expensive in terms of data compression and handset costs, the best handlernof email, the best instant-messenger, and available on every major carrier. What more does anyone really expect pre-LTE?

    This summer I expect the data pipe increase from LTE phones to spawn lots of robust apps craving speed of pipe, speed of processor, and memory. I’m fairly confident that’s when RIM’s devices will make the leap to great hardware. That’s when we will see RIM’s dual-core handsets wih great battery life, and the first wave of QNX OS phones.

    We wanted a competiive browser–check (Torch). We wanted a capacitive touch screen–check (Torch). We wanted a powerful new OS–check (QNX). We wanted a snazzy new UI–(TAT) this sounds like it is a good move.

    Easy haters, your valid reasons for disliking RIM devices are disappearing.

    • masc

      Well said sir.

    • Anonymous

      I see a few checks missing, a tablet OS (an unreleased one at that) does not a new powerful OS make. Until it’s actually out and running on a phone you can check that box, no one has seen that to date. And I do hope your right about them being all QNX and LTE by the summer, but blimey look how long it took RIM to move into 3G. The Bold 9k was their first and it was only released a little over 2 years ago on AT&T, so honestly I’m not holding my breath waiting for RIM to do what they need to and neither should anyone else.

      • zukidrvr

        The 9000 was delayed because of problems on the AT&T side, not the device side. RIM had to keep changing their software specs to match what AT&T was trying to do to get the network to work correctly without dropping calls. Ask any early iPhone 3G adopter about dropped calls before the 9000 launched. Also, AT&T had exclusivity on the 9000 in the US, so they called the shots on launch dates, not RIM.

      • Anonymous

        I’m sorry you was expecting the carriers to abandon their processes when 4G comes around for RIM? Oh and BTW OS 4.6 dropped so many calls on that delayed Bold that we can all say everyone was in pain with 3G, why expect anything less for 4G?

    • Tbz

      You forgot hardware (better LCD’s and proc’s)

    • Rodrigo

      The reason why ‘haters’ dislike RIM is because of what we have seen and what they have done thus far. There is no reason to believe that RIM is specially positioned to take advantage of LTE when they have done very little to take advantage of 3G. Their current “flagship” phone features a screen resolution of 480×360 and a 624mhz processor. This kind of hardware may have been competitive TWO years ago.

      I think this is an exciting acquisition by RIM but to believe that QNX, LTE, and a new TAT UI are going to be the future requires a great deal of faith: believing without seeing.

  • Anonymous

    Too little, too late. RIM will bankrupt in < 5 years.

  • jk

    Rim is always to slow to react. It took them FOREVER just to get a web kit in place.

    • Oye Consolte!

      Yes, two years. Holy shit. That is a long time.

      • DTownTony

        How long did it take iOS to bring multitasking, true push email, security, and the ability to make a phone call without it being dropped every 2 minutes to the market? you can get back to me when they actually do it….

      • KCRic

        You forgot copy and paste. Remember how apple made a HUGE deal about it. Commercials and all.

        Blackberry phones have done that since day 1.

      • Anonymous

        @ DTownTony
        “the ability to make a phone call without it being dropped every 2 minutes” –> Every 2 minutes? –> come on now!

        RIM had years to make the types of innovation that Apple introduced with it’s very first iPhone. You may not like Apple but to preserve your own credibility you would have to at least acknowledge this basic fact, they revolutionized the whole smartphone industry with their very first phone.

      • DTownTony

        @raycote I never said they didn’t. The biggest innovation of the iPhone was that it brought a focus to consumers and media playing capabilities. I never said Apple hasn’t brought anything tot he table, but when there is a post about a move that has the potential to bring ALOT to RIMs product lines (much like the purchase of Torch which brought a webkit browser and QNX which is a game changer for RIM) and all that is said is “oh gee golly to bad they’ll be gone in 5 years whaaaa whaaaa” BTW Apple has had YEARS now to bring the common sense features to their phones such as multitasking, copy and paste, etc, not just “innovations”. If you give me the most innovative pen but don’t include ink its useless. so RIM is FINALLY attacking the consumer market the correct way and people complain about it? The ironic part is most BB users will admit the device leaves ALOT to be desired in terms of media and other non-traditional business usage, but at what point will the Steve Jobs canoes actual accept the inherent flaws of having a smart phone that is geared more towards being a media device? or more importantly just because something is “cool” doesn’t mean its the end-all.

  • Larrytheemail

    I’m glad RIM is finally addressing some of their shortcomings, but let’s hope it does not take them too long to implement them. I mean, we’ve been hearing about QNX and the Blackpad for quite a while and still have yet to see the device hit the market. Moreover, we have yet to even hear about a new Blackberry that will use QNX as its OS. Look at what happened with Palm, they did many things right with WebOS, however, by the time they did, it was too little, too late, and not even WebOS could save them from being sold to the highest bidder. That said, hopefully HP can take full advantage of WebOS to make a killer phone. The more competition, the better for all us consumers in the end. Here’s hoping RIM, Windows and HP can give Apple and Google a reason to give us better hardware and software at lower prices!

    • Scottthompso

      When Palm introduced WebOS it had less than 2.0% market share worldwide, RIM has over 30% worldwide, and makes up 15% of sales, and is still growing, selling more units quarter and quarter. RIM is no where near the position Palm was in. The only problem with RIM is its not as flashy as Android or iOS, this acquisition will fix that, and once QNX is released on a smartphone they will be #1. QNX will allow for faster processing and much improved battery life, as well be much easier for developers to build apps for. Coupled with security and RIM’s huge advantage in actually communicating (calling, data usage, BBM, emails), make it easy for RIM to capture the market as it has a distinct competitive advantage, which iOS and Android don’t have.

      If RIM doesn’t capitalize on this by this time next year, I agree, they will be doomed to be the next Palm, but right now they are far from it.

  • Anonymous

    by the time anything created by TAT is implemented by RIM – it will be 5 yrs down the road and RIM will already be irrelevant if not bankrupt

    • Len

      Torch mobile was bought summer 09. Its webkit browser is already on their phones.
      QNX was bought April, 2010. It’s coming to the Playbook.

      You’re trying too hard.

  • Anonymous

    OK this really makes a lot of sense dude, WOw.

    http://www.real-privacy.edu.tc

  • Len

    I see all the haters have resorted to pointing out how long it took RIM to implement this and that. Well let’s not the dwell in the past. Do people still mention how long it took Apple to get copy/paste, video recording, multitasking anymore? I would hope not, because it’s not relevant anymore.

    This is a good step for RIM. It addresses a major aspect of how a device appeals to the user, the UI. If RIM can use some of the ideas from TAT and implement that into their already very visually appealing QNX OS (at least from what we’ve seen), then I think RIM has great potential for the Playbook along with future BlackBerrys running QNX.

  • Boldburry

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    what whaaaaaaaat hit me on my bLaCk burry,,,,,,,,,,
    mah black burry burry
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    uhh uhh huhhh mah black burry burry

    whAthCaa whAtchAa know jigga jigga

    blackburry iS the bEsT jigga jigga

    yeh uhh uhh yeah uhh uhh you so nice black burry

    uhh yeah

    oh sh*t you so nice burry, i wAnNa c U m on you blackk burry

    uhh yeah hit me on mah black burry, mah black burry burry

  • Meanjavabean

    And TAT is Swedish!!

  • SVELTE

    we just need some of these goddam “future phones” already

  • Drew

    Ok, so you’re ALLLLMOST forgiven for not purchasing Palm… Good work RIM, make it happen.

  • LGR

    i’m a proud bb 9700 owner myself and i really am dying to see what RIM is going to bring out in the future. I think now they have QNX n TAT we’re gonna see some pretty nice touchscreen phones coming out in the near future!!

    The bbOS just sucks on touchscreen phones so a new OS will certainly be a huge step in the right direction.. and knowing that RIM is working with these 2 (very skilled) companies only makes things better.
    Once they’re done with the OS we CAN expect future phones with high specs AND A VERY NICE OS from RIM! the (old/weak) hardware used now in bb’s are more than enough to keep the “old” os running smooth so there is no need for a high spec phone is the OS doesnt benefit of it..

    but reading this everybody can see that RIM is working hard to make up for theyr losses in the Phone industrie.

    I’m looking forward to see more of RIM!

  • Kent

    Why did RIM have to buy TAT? Why couldn’t they just be a UI customer? Any thoughts? If you look at their website, apparently they contract with a bunch of companies, some who may or may not be in the mobile space? Maybe they are so good at UI they wanted to shut out the other mobile providers? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

    • http://www.marceloeduardo.com Marcelo

      I think a lot of people is forgetting that TaT is more about it’s technology (engines / libs / tools ) that enable great UIs than great UI design. They do a lot of concepts to showcase how great (and it’s great) their tech is.

      So, I am sure that Rim wanted something else than AIR for developers, and looking at the offers in the market, it seems quite wise:

      TaT tech has: A great basic UI lib, A great rendering engine with the whole 3D effects / GPU effects added to it, and most important : it has a great DESIGNER tool.

      ;)

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