Apple has reportedly purchased a low-energy wireless chipset developer named Passif, a company whose technology seems a good fit for the future of mobile. Jessica Lessin reports:
The company in recent months purchased Silicon Valley-based wireless chip developer, Passif Semiconductor, according to people briefed on the deal. Passif develops communication chips that use very little power. Its technology, which includes a radio that works with a low-energy version of Bluetooth called Bluetooth LE, is promising for health-monitoring and fitness devices that need extra-long battery life. (Apple, of course, is working on one of those.)
Apple has bought and invested in a bunch of wireless and chipset companies over the years, including PA Semi and Intrinsity, the fruits of which have surfaced in everything from faster existing chipset architectures to Apple's first custom-designed system-on-a-chip (SoC), the Apple A6. The more Apple can do in-house, and the more they can use each piece to make the overall puzzle better, the bigger the differentiation they'll be able to achieve from competitors, and the more precisely they'll be able to service their own future plans.
So, business as usual. Smart business.
Source: Jessica Lessin
