In its endeavor to address one of the most blatant issues - that of a supposedly not-so-competent BlackBerry browser - affecting its standing in the mobile browser market, Research In Motion (RIM) has gone in for the acquisition of Torch Mobile, for an undisclosed amount.

The Toronto-based Torch Mobile, which revealed on Monday that it has been acquired by RIM, is a WebKit developer that offers the Iris mobile browser, and presently runs on Windows Mobile phones, as well as Qtopia, the Linux devices' application development platform.

In a Web statement, Torch Mobile wrote: "Our team of developers will join RIM's global organization and will now be focused on utilizing our WebKit-based mobile browser expertise to contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the BlackBerry platform."

The open source, fast and forceful WebKit provides a browsing experience that it is far more superior to that offered on BlackBerry smartphones at present. The Webkit software is being used in some of the leading browsers, including the Apple Safari, the Google Chrome, the Palm Pre, and the Nokia Series 60.

Meanwhile, though RIM has not announced its plans for either Torch Mobile or its browser, Chris Umiastowski, market analyst at TD Securities, had said earlier this month that a BlackBerry browser on-par with the iPhone's browser is likely by the summer of 2010!