Apple acquisition spree continues with data compression firm AlgoTrim
If there were some sort of rewards program for acquiring small tech companies, Apple would surely have racked up a ton of points by now. Cupertino’s latest purchase is a Malmö, Sweden-based company called AlgoTrim; its acquisition was first reported by Swedish news service Rapidus, and later confirmed by TechCrunch.
Unlike Apple’s last several investments, this firm isn’t location- or mapping-related. AlgoTrim actually specializes in data-compression algorithms—specifically, codecs that deal with images and video on mobile platforms. While the company originally provided its software to feature phones, AlgoTrim has more recently been used in Gallery app on the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google’s Android operating system. Other clients have included Japanese mobile carrier KDDI, which uses AlgoTrim’s software in its Photo Album App, and other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which use the compression algorithms to deliver firmware updates to devices.
So what’s Apple’s interest in AlgoTrim? When it comes to mobile platforms, data compression is a big deal—and, using AlgoTrim’s software, Apple might be able to make it into a somewhat smaller deal. Much of what we do on our phones requires downloading lots of data, whether it be listening to music, watching video, or even just browsing the Web. Anybody who has ever exceeded their monthly cellular data limit has probably wished for a more efficient use of bandwidth.
Optimized algorithms could also speed up the ways we interact with images, improving performance and yielding a better experience for users. Obviously, taking and viewing photos are a significant part of what we do with our mobile devices, and anything that helps make that snappier is a tangible benefit for end users. AlgoTrim’s technology could even lead to some additional image or video features that we haven’t yet seen, such as slow-motion video—better compression algorithms could let users record high-resolution video at a high framerate without requiring equally high levels of processor usage and battery power.
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