RIM buys tinyHippos

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Research In Motion (RIM) has snapped up cross-platform mobile app developer tinyHippos.

The company is known for its mobile environment emulator Ripple - something that has clearly grabbed the BlackBerry maker's interest.

Furthermore, the acquisition will allow RIM to benefit from tinyHippos' "extensive experience in web and mobile widget/web development," Tyler Lessard, RIM's vice president of global alliances and developer relations, said on the developers' blog on Friday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We are extremely excited about our future at RIM and continuing to grow and support Ripple. This is a great step towards our goal of providing a cross-platform mobile application development and testing tool to developers worldwide. Specifically, we will be working to bring BlackBerry support to the Ripple product," tinyHippos' Dan Silivestru, said in a company blog post.

"We would like to extend a special thank you to all of you that have supported and believed in us."

The acquisition comes as RIM prepares to launch its Playbook tablet computer next month, entering an increasingly crowded market dominated by Apple's iPad and various devices running on Google's Android platform.

RIM has said it would offer support for Android apps on its tablet, potentially enabling it to carry more than 200,000 of the third-party software additions available on the platform.

The company last week reported a higher-than-forecast fourth-quarter profit but warned that its earnings would slip as it pumped money into the launch of the Playbook.

(Additional reporting by IT PRO)

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