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Torch Mobile, makers of the Iris browser, acquired by RIM; web browsing on a BlackBerry to suck less

By: , IntoMobile
Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 7:30 AM

Torch Mobile, who make the Iris mobile web browser for Windows Mobile devices, has been acquired by Research in Motion for an undisclosed sum of money. This piece of information was on their website:

torchmobileTorch Mobile is excited to announce that our company has been acquired by Research In Motion (RIM), one of the most renowned mobile technology companies in the world. Our team of developers will join RIM’s global organization and will now be focused on utilizing our WebKit-based mobile browser expertise to contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the BlackBerry® platform.

Torch Mobile’s team of highly skilled developers has been actively involved in Open Source development and includes contributors, Commiters and Reviewers of the WebKit project. As part of RIM, these developers will continue to be active participants in the WebKit development community.

Looks like RIM’s fighting words from less than 2 weeks ago about making a mobile browser that will be on par with that of the iPhone wasn’t just hype, RIM is really trying to make this happen.

[Hat tip to the Boy Genius]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • HereAndNow

    Cool!

    Now, all of the “native” iPhone, Android, WebOS, Symbian & Blackberry browsers will be WebKit-based. That will make it MUCH easier for developers to create web sites & applications that:

    1. render consistently, across all of the major smartphone OSes (including WinMo, if a 3rd-party WebKit browser is installed).

    2. utilize HTML5.