Research in Motion has acquired social contact provider Gist for an undisclosed sum. I reported on Gist two years ago when it was fresh on the scene. Since then Gist has matured into providing social profile and public information about your contacts in real time. I use Gist on a daily basis and it is integrated with my Google Apps platform in the cloud.

RIM, maker of blackberry devices decided with this purchase it will not go down without a fight against Andorid and iPhone market share. Gist had the following to say posted on its’ homepage

Today, we are announcing that Gist has become part of Research In Motion (RIM). We are extremely excited about our future at RIM and how Gist will be used by millions of BlackBerry users around the globe. This is a huge step towards our goal of utilizing the web-based Gist experience to allow users to build stronger professional relationships. Stay tuned for more details and thank you all for the support and encouragement that have gotten us to this next great phase at Gist.

Gist overview by CEO T.A. McCann from Robert Pease on Vimeo.

The purchase of Gist follows a wave of forward thinking acquisitions by RIM in the past 18 months. You can bet after the launch of the Blackberry playbook the hand-held devices and phones will be drastically different 12 months from now. The company still has promising market share and a solid vertical in the business and enterprise space.

Competitors to Gist are popular Rapportive, etacts and Flowtown