It will be interesting to analyse this once we know more. Previous Apple acquisitions went quiet for a while but then became part of Apples plans in a big way:

It will be interesting to analyse this once we know more. Previous Apple acquisitions went quiet for a while but then became part of Apples plans in a big way: Siri, Inc. --> Siri PA Semi --> A6 chips in Apple devices Lala --> iTunes Match I suppose the difference is that they all had viable products prior to acquisition. But what I'm thinking is that Color have been working on stuff which is quite clearly close to Apples photo offerings (cameras in all their devices, photo stream, iCloud, gps, Facebook integration). How much would it cost Apple to develop all that stuff? A few million I guess. But what would the oppurtunity cost be of Apple putting one of their development teams to work on these features? A lot more (judging by how much Apple's profits keep growing). Apple don't have enough staff to capitalise on all the oppurtunities that they have (hence their massive pile of unspent cash). They can only do so much at once. But what if they find a project basically tailor made to their standards (strategically aligned, patented to the gills, high quality code-base, iOS compatibility)? Might make sense to spend their pocket money and just acquire it for a somewhat inflated price.