Apple snaps up wireless chip-maker to beef up Bluetooth
Like celebrity deaths, Apple acquisitions seem to come in clumps. Last month the company acquired two mapping-related companies, Locationary and HopStop; on Thursday, Cupertino mixed it up by snagging a maker of low-energy computer chips, Passif Semiconductor. News of the deal was first reported and confirmed by former Wall Street Journal writer Jessica Lessin.
As usual, Apple was closemouthed about its reasons for the acquisition, but it’s not hard to figure out why it picked up the small Silicon Valley-based company, which was founded by a pair of Ph.D. students from the University of California, Berkeley. Clearly, though, Apple has deemed it increasingly important to control the key technologies that go into its products—case in point, its 2008 acquisition of PA Semi, which enabled Apple to develop its own processors for products like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Along with processors, wireless technology is the other key area on which Apple has focused; just look at its attempts to simplify and cut down on the number of wires for its devices using technologies like AirPlay, and its early adoption of Wi-Fi. More recently, there have been reports that users may soon be able to use Bluetooth to configure their Apple TV. And former senior vice president Bob Mansfield, who was recently detailed to work on special projects for Tim Cook, was last year put in charge of a Technologies division working specifically on semiconductors and wireless.
That connectivity between devices is only going to become more important with the rise of Bluetooth LE (low energy), the part of the Bluetooth 4.0 standard that’s targeted at low-power devices like those used for fitness, security, and healthcare. Even if you set aside long-running rumors of Apple’s foray into wearable computing, having a stake in this technology is important for the company’s existing mobile products, which, more and more, are interacting with smartwatches, fitness devices, and the like. The forthcoming iOS 7 bears this out: It’s due to include a technology called iBeacons, which allows devices to collect data such as location via Bluetooth LE.
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