BlackBerry goes shopping for video skills

Research in Motion has acquired a small video editing startup called JayCut. The seven man Swedish team has been developing a Web-based video editing suite for the past few years — free to use for casual users, with the technology also being licensed to other companies. The reason for the acquisition seems to be RIM’s fixation on making the BlackBerry Playbook more consumer-competitive against the iPad.

RIM has faced a barrage of criticism of the PlayBook, with weak sales requiring a sharp knife be taken to forecasts. Chief amongst the kibitzing has been the slow growth of available apps for the device (linked to the tardy rollout of developer tools), the lock-in to the BlackBerry messaging environment and no third-party mail apps allowed, and limited flexibility if using the PlayBook without an associated BB phone.

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