Apple’s rumored acquisition of Wi-Gear is a rare move involving consumer hardware, rather than technology or services. What’s the deal?
Apple has not yet confirmed the report, but Wi-Gear co-founder Michael Kim lists his current job as iOS Bluetooth Engineer at Apple Inc., and Wi-Gear’s Website says the company is no longer in business.
9to5Mac’s Seth Weintraub thinks Apple will use Wi-Gear’s expertise to build stereo Bluetooth headphones for future iOS devices and MacBooks. I’m not convinced this is the whole story.
With acquisitions, Apple’s intent isn’t always obvious or even in-line with rumors. When the company acquired music streaming service Lala in December 2009, unconfirmed reports suggested that the team was put to work on a Web-based version of iTunes. So far, that hasn’t panned out, and a later rumor said Apple instead used Lala’s talent for streaming video.
Apple also bought Siri, the maker of a personal assistant app, with the assumption by some tech watchers that Apple would integrate these features into iOS. Again, that hasn’t happened. Another possible motiviation: Siri has really good voice recognition features, which Apple could use, especially as Google is making great strides on that front.
But still, these are software services, and Apple is a “software driven company,” according to Chief Executive Steve Jobs. Apple has acquired hardware makers before, including chip-makers PA Semi and Intrinsity, and the purpose was obvious: The company wanted more control over the innards of its products.
Still, a consumer product like iMuffs sticks out as odd. There are plenty of third-party manufacturers making great iOS peripherals. To single out one company suggests there’s more to the purchase than turning iMuffs into first-party hardware. Maybe I’m reading into this too much, and Apple is simply planning to bundle Bluetooth headsets instead of wired ones in the future, but I wouldn’t be surprised if something else is afoot.