Time to chalk up another Apple acquisition. According to sources speaking to both AllThingsD and TechCrunch, the Cupertino firm has acquired Cue, the company behind a personal assistant app on iOS. Apple didn't come straight out and confirm the deal, but it did offer up the following statement:
"Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
There's been no comment on the matter from Cue, but the company did recently shut down its service and yank its app from the App Store. Interestingly, Cue didn't explain why it was going away, saying only that it appreciated the support of its users and that Cue Premium users would be receiving a prorated refund. Tipsters claim that Apple dropped around $40 million for Cue.
As for exactly what Apple plans to do with Cue and its technology, well, that's something that only Tim Cook and Co. know for sure. Cue's personal assistant app would comb through a user's email, contacts and files and then produce a list of his or her events for the day. Taking that into consideration, it's possible that Apple could be planning to use Cue's tech to help beef up Siri, its own personal assistant that's built into iOS. Do you iOS folk ever use Siri? If so, what do you primarily use it for?
Via AllThingsD, TechCrunch (1), (2)
