RIM buys tinyHippos to back cross-platform app emulation
updated 02:00 pm EDT, Sat March 26, 2011
RIM buys tinyHippos for cross-platform apps
RIM finished the week with word that it had bought tinyHippos. The smaller company was picked up for its "expertise in cross-platform emulation environments" and will add the BlackBerry to Ripple, its tool for testing mobile HTML5 apps. TinyHippos stressed that it would still make Ripple available for everyone and would still get support in the future.
Neither company gave a timetable for when they expected the deal to close or for when Ripple to get BlackBerry support.
BlackBerry 6, BlackBerry Tablet OS and future versions are making increasingly heavy use of HTML5 and other web code to help app development. The takeover could see RIM offering a ready-made emulator tool to let at least some app writers preview their code without a significant outlay for the copy of VMware Fusion to simulate native apps.
