RIM's comeback may rest on UI design from The Astonishing Tribe

video demo of BlackBerry 10

Click here for a video demonstration of BlackBerry 10.

Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) will formally kick off its comeback with the unveiling of BlackBerry 10 on Jan. 30, but if it does reclaim its former glory the company will likely owe much of it to Swedish design firm The Astonishing Tribe. RIM snapped up the company, known as TAT, in December 2010, to help redesign the user interface of its BlackBerry smartphones. Much of BlackBerry10's UI is based on TAT's Cascade design language. The Wall Street Journal reports that the integration of TAT into RIM was not a smooth process, with tensions and miscommunications clouding the relationship between the two firms. However, ultimately TAT's UI became a core part of RIM's new platform. BB10 is a full redesign of RIM's existing BlackBerry operating system. The new platform features a new user interface, BlackBerry Flow, which allows users to scroll seamlessly between apps. BlackBerry Peek allows users to glance at another application without leaving the one a user is currently running. And BlackBerry Hub combines users' various inboxes, messages and notifications. Article (sub. req.)