TAT - The Astonishing Tribe acquired by RIM

TAT is know in the mobile phone industry for making elegant user interface for many mobile phones. Sony Ericsson, Nokia and others mobile phone makers are using TAT as the solution provider of design of user interface including navigation icons and overall interface design of more than 470 million devices. According to TAT, this year 20% of all touch phones and 200 different device models are developed with the help from TAT.

Two of TAT's main products are TAT Cascades and TAT Home

TAT Cascades
TAT Cascades is a UI framework for embedded and open operating systems. Applications are developed using a combination of of the XML based, declarative language TML (TAT Markup language) and the APIs of TAT Cascades. Since the UI is 'described' in a markup language rather than implemented using lengthy programming code, the result is a representation of the UI that is easily  readable, customized and maintained.

TAT Home
TAT Home is a gesture-powered 3D Home screen for Android. With simple gestures the user can perform everyday tasks - such as, Contacts, Messaging, Music and Weather - without leaving the Home screen. In addition to standard Android Widgets, TAT Home supports unique widgets with 3D-graphics and innovative interaction methods. For example, the 3D weather widget pops up to show detailed data behind an at-a-glance forecast. With TAT Home we offer a fast  track for OEMs, ODMs and operators to create a very attractive and differentiated user experience on Android devices.

The risk for TAT after the RIM takeover is of course that other manufactures not will see TAT as an independent contractor anymore and instead look elsewhere for UI jobs. On the other hand, a similar takeover with Nokia's 2008 acquisition of Trolltech (later QT) - a cross platform UI framework, did not scare away Trolltech's customer base.

TAT has offices in Sweden, South Korea and USA

Below is a short experience video clip from TAT that show how they see a normal day in a couple of years. Come back to this page in 2014 and see if they were right