The early 2013 debut of BlackBerry 10 is slowing inching closer, but it looks like one member of the team behind the new operating system won't be with RIM once it actually hits the market. It's been revealed that The Astonishing Tribe founder Hampus Jakobsson has decided to leave RIM. In response to a question about why he decided to part ways with the BlackBerry manufacturer, Jakobsson explained that he's "a startup-guy" and that he's gotten the urge to get another going. Meanwhile, the TAT team that's still at RIM has assured fans that Jakobsson has shared with them "everything he knows" and that things will continue on as normal.
RIM acquired UI design firm The Astonishing Tribe back at the tail-end of 2010, with the manufacturer explaining at the time that TAT would be working on the interfaces of both its smartphones and the PlayBook. Since then, we've seen that TAT has helped RIM to bring a fresh look to the BlackBerry platform with BlackBerry 10. While it seems unlikely that Jakobsson's departure will have much of an effect on BB10 considering how close we're getting to launch as well as the fact that the rest of the TAT team is still with RIM, it's still noteworthy considering that he was TAT's founder. It's not yet clear what kind of startup Jakobsson will be building next.
Via Engadget, @TATMobileUI, @Hajak
- Log in to post comments