Apple seems to be showing its clout. After it acquired small Santa Monica-based startup Burstly, it has presumably caused a chain of events that led to Burstly-owned TestFlight's dropping of Android support by March 21, and the discontinuation of TestFlight SDK.
Burstly is popular among developers for its mobile app management platform and its mobile analytics tools such as FlightPath and TestFlight, a testing tool that allows mobile developers to release early version of their iOS applications without having to test it via the App Store. TestFlight also informs developers of purchases done in-app, and the efficiency of their advertisements, as well as what apps people are actually using.
Burstly acquired TestFlight in 2011, which was a standalone project at the time. Burstly mainly provides "solutions for the entire app life cycle," as mentioned in its website, and it offers two tools, TestFlight, for "beta testing on the fly," and SkyRocket, which allows developers to "monetize any ad partner."
Burstly also says that, "Fortune 500 companies, investors, top publishers, independents, students... from experts to beginners, they're all here. Most of the world's developers rely on the TestFlight platform for beta testing, crash reporting and analytics." TestFlight helps with app distribution, team management, and provides the added benefit of testing for unlimited devices, on top of beta testing transparency.
Now that Apple owns Burstly, this acquisitions means that aside from pulling Android support, TestFlight SDK's new users and those who have never uploaded on the SDK platform will also have to remove their builds. Only existing teams will be allowed to continue uploading their builds with the SDK.
Apple's acquisitions are often quiet, and usually absorbs the employees of the acquired startups into the various development branches of Apple. Apple stated in its latest securities filings that it spent $ 525 million in deals in the last quarter of 2013, which was twice higher than what it had spent in the entire fiscal year of 2012. Its biggest deal in 2013 was worth $345 million for a semiconductor company.
This latest acquisition could mean that Apple is considering making some changes to its own app-testing systems. But true to its reputation, Apple has yet to expound on its acquisition of Burstly. It is unclear why Apple was interested in Burstly, and whether it was interested in its technology or its team. Financial details remain undisclosed.
This is Apple's second acquisition this year. In January, it acquired SnappyLabs, a photography app developer.
