RIM has suffered another casualty, as one of its key interface design gurus, Hampus Jakobsson, has left the company.
Jakobsson was the head of The Astonishing Tribe, which was acquired by RIM in late 2010 to work on developing its QNX platform (also acquired in 2010) into a new smartphone platform.
The first incarnation of this was the failed BlackBerry Playbook tablet, which was released unfinished, and work was continuing on developing that OS into the BlackBerry 10 platform, due to power the endlessly delayed next generation of BlackBerry smartphones.
Jakobsson announced his retirement via Twitter:
"I’m handing over this to others in RIM now, but if you want to follow me as a ex-TAT-founder I’m at: @hajak"
He told BGR he left because "I’m a startup-guy and even if I really liked the company and the people, I felt it was time to start another one."
RIM released a statement:
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"RIM can confirm that Hampus Jakobsson has left his role as Director, Strategic Alliances at RIM. We wish him the best. The BlackBerry 10 UI team, which includes many members of The Astonishing Tribe, as well as others around the world, remains on track to deliver BlackBerry 10 in the first quarter of 2013."
There appears to be a bit of corporate awkwardness, going by follow up tweets:
RIM’s struggles have been well documented, as CEO Thorsten Heins makes aggressive cutbacks to keep the company afloat.
