Google Buys BumpTop, But Why?
Yesterday, TechCrunch caught wind of a very interesting rumor that stated Google was either preparing to buy BumpTop, or that the deal has already gone down. Since then, the story has been confirmed by Google themselves, however there was no reason nor did their exist any details regarding the terms to which both sides agreed.
We’re happy to welcome the BumpTop team to Google, but we don’t have any specific information to share.
BumpTop is a desktop organizer that sits atop Windows and Mac-based systems and is intended to be used on touch-screen monitors or tablet devices. The technology is really cool and incorporates multi-touch to provide the user with a streamlined, pretty, and easy interface to handle every day computing needs.
With Google rumored to be working on their own tablet device, an acquisition of BumpTop makes us wonder: will we see it used for such a purpose? Even without the prospect of Android being equipped on the device (many are banking on Google’s new ChromeOS to be the system of choice) it gets us thinking about the possibility of Google taking small bits and pieces from BumpTop and using them to enhance the Android experience. We’ve already seen as much in Android 2.1’s gallery app thanks to Google’s partnership with CoolIris, so I see no reason not to expect they’d use this acquisition to pretty up more of the Android OS.
To boot, BumpTop will no longer be developed (or available for sale) for either Mac OS or Windows-based PCs, with the developer stating:
Today, we have a big announcement to make: we’re going to be taking BumpTop in an exciting new direction, which means that BumpTop (for both Windows and Mac) will no longer be available for sale. Additionally, no updates to the products are planned.
It’s clear, then, that Google needs this to be unique to whatever endeavours they’re planning with this move. We can’t say much given the lack of details – and we could very well see this being another case of the Grand Central acquisition where Google provided the same service under their own “Google Voice” brand – but when BumpTop returns (in some form or another) we’ll be right there to gawk all over Google’s plans to use it.
Irony report: Is it just me, or does that look like Steve Jobs in the image we used? Just sayin’.