Another mobile software maker has fallen for the seductive charms of WebKit, and it's a biggie: RIM has acquired Torch Mobile—the company that makes the WebKit-based Iris browser—to "contribute to the BlackBerry platform." So long, asstastic BlackBerry browser.
Given that Torch Mobile only makes one piece of software (currently unavailable), that they say their main contribution to the aforementioned "enhancement" will be "utilizing [their] WebKit-based mobile browser expertise," and that the iPhone, Android and Symbian have made WebKit the de facto standard for decent mobile web browsing, it's not hard to guess what's going on here. Also interesting: This comes just a week after rumors that BlackBerrys would soon(ishly) support Flash and Silverlight out of the box.
Now that we know RIM is serious about WebKit, the only questions left start with "when?" You know, like when will BlackBerry OS ship with its first WebKit browser? And when will everyone else finally just give up on doing anything else? [Torch Mobile via BGR]
