Updated: BlackBerry teaming up with UI firm

Updated: I made some incorrect assumptions on HTC relationship with You i Labs and corrected the story to reflect my error!
There are additional details as well.

Research In Motion, the company behind the iconic BlackBerry line of smartphones is rumored to be hiring YOU i Labs, an Ontario-based design firm that helped develop the front-end user experience for mobile phone makers in TaiwanTaiwan’s HTC. My sources in the mobile design industry have indicated that a deal was in the works between the two companies. Initially, it seemed RIM was going to buy YOU i Labs, but in the end, it turned out to be a significant partnership between the two companies it just might be that two companies are rumored to be working together. You i Labs denies the acquisition rumors and any active discussions with the Canadian phone maker.

There are rumors that the company might be in the process of acquiring Teknision, which has helped develop the Playbook UI. Teknision and You i Labs signed a strategic partnership in March 2011. You i Labs CEO Jason Flick in an email wrote: “They are a very close partner and we intend to continue bringing our companies closer together and they do have a relationship with RIM. “

The deal would be a boost for both You i Labs and RIM, which has been focusing more on improving the user experience on its devices. Last December, RIM bought The Astonishing Tribe or TAT, a Swedish UI design firm to help improve tablet and smartphone UI design. YOU i Labs develops user experience and interface technologies for mobile devices of all kinds including tablets, smartphones and other mobile electronics. YOU i Labs boasts that nearly 500 million devices are running software developed by the company.

You i Labs has developed Sense-like UI for its clients that include Taiwanese phone manufacturers who in turn make phones for large handset makers. The company says it has no links with HTC or HTC Sense. From previously published reports it seemed that there was a link between the two companies. Additionally, when I emailed CEO Flick, he didn’t correct my question/assumption.

In an email he wrote, “I just noticed you did mention them in your email to us and I didn’t catch that reference, so I apologize for that. I suspect that reference comes from an article that talks about how while in Taiwan last week we spoke to so many ODM/OBM companies that need/want to do what HTC has and we are helping them.”

HTC, had used Sense UI as a way to stand out in a marketplace full of similar-looking Android devices. I have been a big fan of HTC Sense and have applauded their desire to stand out from the crowd, whether through Sense or through their investments in different companies or their outright acquisitions of applications and services that enhance their platform. HTC recently unveiled the OpenSense SDK, a tool that will allow developers to write applications on top of its Sense UI. My colleague Ryan Kim reported that “this is part of a larger rollout of HTCdev, a program aimed at supporting developers by providing tools and resources.”

RIM, which now makes the Playbook tablet, has been trying to develop a unique user experience to go along with its messaging strengths. YOU i Labs also works closely with Teknision, a Taiwanese small company also based in Ottawa, Ontario that designs the Playbook UI. (There is some chatter that Teknision might be getting acquired by You i Labs.) Bolstering its user experience is a good move for the company which has been increasingly feeling the pressure from rivals: Apple’s iOS devices and Google’s Android OS device ecosystem. According to Gartner, RIM’s worldwide smartphone market share in the first quarter dropped to 12.9 percent from 19.7 percent a year earlier.

In a recent presentation, Jason Flick, the founder of You i Labs talked about the emergence of what he calls the Era of the Intimate User Interface.