Research in Motion acquires Scoreloop

Research in Motion, the company behind the Blackberry range of smartphones, has acquired Scoreloop, a mobile developer which specialises in adding in-app billing and social networking tools to smartphone apps.

The move seems aimed at helping RIM make up some of the lost ground between its proprietary app platform and those of its rivals and push for a slice of the mobile gaming market.

"We're excited that the Scoreloop team is joining the BlackBerry Developer team and bringing their expertise in creating social and collaborative gaming toolkits for mobile developers to the BlackBerry platform," reads a post on the Inside BlackBerry Developer's Blog.

"We look forward to working with the team at Scoreloop to provide tools that will further enable our developer community to take gaming to a new level of social integration on the BlackBerry platform."

Despite a large market share in smartphone use, the Blackberry platform has functioned primarily as a business tool, with RIM only recently making a concerted effort to participate in the rush for gaming cash. Its new tablet, the 'professional grade' PlayBook, has sold well - but so far hasn't translated those sales into activity on the Blackberry app store.