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By Dan Moren for Macworld
What Apple’s latest acquisitions can tell us about its product pipeline
Sure as summer turns to fall, sure as pizza is the most delicious food, sure as a shark will devour whatever lies in its path, Apple is once again gobbling up smaller companies. In the past few weeks, we’ve heard of at least three acquisitions that Apple has made recently.
Whether it’s because the companies have developed some sort of technology that Apple wants for itself (or to deny its competitors) or because the Cupertino-based company is looking to hire more people with certain specialities, Apple tends to acquire smaller companies regularly. According to comments from Tim Cook last year, it’s at a rate of roughly one company every two or three weeks, which is, well, a lot of acquisitions.
While you can’t always draw a straight line from the firms that Apple decides to buy to actual shipping products, I do believe that there’s information to glean from what technology catches the company’s eye in terms of what it’s interested in and where it’s putting its energy. With that in mind, let’s take a look at those recent three purchases and see what there is to see.