RIM Acquires App Developer (RIMM, AAPL, GOOG)

Research In Motion RIMM has acquired the creator of Ripple, a mobile application development and testing tool. The company, tinyHippos Inc, was purchased in alignment with RIM's launch of the Playbook, a tablet computer to compete with Apple's AAPL iPad. According to Reuters, “The company was acquired for its ‘extensive experience in web and mobile widget/web development,' Tyler Lessard, RIM's vice president of global alliances and developer relations, said on the developer's blog on Friday.” The tablet market is swarming with applications from Apple and Google's GOOG Android. RIM intends on supporting Android applications on the Playbook, but having an application developer and a large platform of its own applications would be inevitably more profitable than offering access to another provider's applications. RIM intends on giving the Playbook capability to carry more that 200,000 Android applications. In anticipation of increasing spending on the launch of the Playbook, RIM has forecasted that its earnings will fall. The terms of the tinyHippos Inc acquisition have not yet been disclosed.