Apple, Inc. Acquires Burst Photo Developer SnappyLabs

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is reported to have purchased SnappyLabs, the company that created popular app SnappyCam, which allows the user to click full resolution pictures at 20 to 30 frames per second. Citing unnamed sources, TechCrunch revealed that Apple outbid several other players to acquire the company.

However, Apple has not yet confirmed the acquisitions, and terms of the deal are not known.

Founder may join Apple

John Papandriopoulos, an electrical engineer by profession, is the founder of SnappyLabs. Papandriopoulos runs the company alone, which makes it likely that he will join Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) on future camera-related projects after his company is acquired by the iPhone maker.

Through SnappyCam, users can take multiple shots quickly one after another without affecting the image quality. The shooting speed of the camera is 20 to 30 frames per second, which is a good bit speedier than Apple’s current shooting speed.

In his blog post, Papandriopoulos detailed the working of SnappyCam, explaining that to design the app fast discrete cosine transform algorithms were studied, and then the algorithms were used to develop the ARM NEON SIMD coprocessor instructions set architecture. Papandriopoulos elaborated that the final product included almost 10,000 lines of hand-tuned assembly code and over 20,000 lines of low level C code.

Papandriopoulos also wrote that the JPEG compression is a two-part process; the DCT and a lossless Huffman compression stage that forms a compact JPEG file.

Acquisition to boost camera feature

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) would gain an edge over other companies through this camera app with burst photo technology as well as Papandriopoulos himself. The updated feature would enhance the iPhone camera and be fully compatible with the latest iPhone hardware. Also, the burst shooting modes can be embedded into other phones that do not have such a feature (only the iPhone 5S has the imaging sensor module).

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been on an acquisitions spree over the last year or so in the wake of intense competition and increasing negative feedbacks from users, who are complaining about the lack of innovation. The Cupertino-based company has not yet released the much-awaited Apple TV and smartwatch even after years of effort. The iWatch is expected to release in late 2014. However, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KRX:005930) and many other smaller firms have already stepped into the smartwatch segment with their products.

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