Research in Motion has acquired app store infrastructure developer Cellmania, a sign that RIM is getting ready to resuscitate its app store platform.
Cellmania sells something called mFinder, which is a content delivery and app store ecosystem infrastructure product. The company lists Sprint among the content providers using its infrastructure.
This isn’t the first signal RIM has sent that it is ready to overhaul its app store, called the App World: The Wall Street Journal reported about a week ago that RIM was shopping for a mobile ad network like Google’s AdMob and Apple’s Quattro Wireless. Such an ad network would arguably allow it to monetize its apps easier, and so would make sense.
Research in Motion is still playing catch-up with other mobile platforms. It recently launched the hybrid touchscreen/QWERTY BlackBerry Torch slider in an effort to upgrade its Blackberry phones to keep them competitive with iPhones and Android phones. But it ended up slashing its price on the new phone about a week later, after Goldman Sachs called the launch “underwhelming.” Android sales also overtook the BlackBerry in an NPD report earlier this month.
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Cellmania had raised more than $21 million in venture capital funding from BroadVision, Pino Venture Partners, Office Depot and ZAP Ventures.
