RIM Acquires BlackBerry-App Maker Viigo
Research In Motion has acquired Viigo, a Toronto-based company that has built a platform that makes it easy for publishers and other content companies to develop applications for the BlackBerry platform. — Viigo posted a short statement …
Context & Ripple Effects
RIM has been assembling its own content-and-media stack piece by piece: it bought Toronto-based Chalk Media in December 2008 to bring media delivery onto BlackBerry devices (RIM Acquires Chalk Media), and back in 2006 it partnered with Google to pipe Talk and Local directly onto handsets (Google services on BlackBerry). Viigo extends that playbook from delivery to creation — a platform that lets publishers build BlackBerry applications without heavy custom engineering.
The timing matters: February 2010 coverage already framed BlackBerry's app push alongside speculation about Microsoft buying RIM (BlackBerry OS: New BlackBerry Apps, MS Buying RIM?), so RIM acquiring a publisher-facing app toolmaker reads as a bid to make the platform more attractive to content companies at a moment when its app story was under scrutiny.
First-order effects
- Publishers using Viigo's platform gain a direct line into RIM's own engineering roadmap, since their BlackBerry app toolchain is now owned by the handset maker itself.
- Viigo's roadmap narrows to BlackBerry-first priorities under RIM ownership, ending its independence to serve other mobile platforms equally.
Second-order effects
- Rival smartphone platforms courting publishers now face a competitor that bundles device, OS, and app-building middleware from one vendor, pressuring them to offer equivalent in-house tooling or partnerships.
- Content companies deciding where to allocate scarce mobile development resources get one more reason to treat BlackBerry as a supported channel, which feeds RIM's broader effort to counter the perception flagged in February's app-ecosystem coverage.
Third-order effects
- If the Chalk-to-Viigo sequence holds as a pattern, RIM is structuring itself to own the full content supply chain — creation tools through delivery — rather than relying on third-party developers to build for BlackBerry organically.
- Device makers increasingly competing on software ecosystems points toward consolidation of app-platform middleware into handset vendors' hands, raising the bar for independent toolmakers who serve multiple platforms.
The trend: Smartphone makers are acquiring publisher-facing app platforms to secure content supply for their ecosystems, turning app tooling from an open market into a vertically integrated asset.