Google has announced the acquisition of Pixate, a creator of software that helps developers create prototypes of their software on iOS and Android.
As a result of the acquisition, the Pixate Studio is free, and the company is working to reduce the cost of Pixate cloud storage. It is unclear exactly how much Google paid for the company.
"Today, I am very proud to announce that Pixate has joined Google's design team," said Pixate in a statement. "... Our small team at Pixate has some really big ideas, and with the help of Google we'll be able to bring those ideas to the design community at scale. We've become an essential part of the workflow for tens of thousands of designers, and are excited about expanding our mission at Google to reach millions of product teams worldwide."
Pixate first launched in 2013 as a user interface design platform for iOS. It then used its early funding round to expand its platform to Android as well. Initially, it was aimed at reducing the amount of time that developers spent in Photoshop and Xcode.
The company will be joining the division of Google that has brought Material Design to Google's apps and websites.
It's important to note that, in purchasing Pixate, Google will not be killing off the software, instead simply offering it for free. Pixate cloud storage will cost $5 per designer per month, or $50 per year. Those who paid for the Pixate Studio license will get $150 of credit to be put toward Pixate cloud storage.
The acquisition is interesting for Google considering the fact that last year, it purchased Relative Wave, which uses Visual Programming Language to help app creators prototype their apps. The platform used to create those apps, called Form, was also updated today to version 1.3.
These two services will also help Google encourage developers to use its Material Design principles, having also introduced a tool for Web developers to implement Material Design in their websites.
Of course, it's beneficial for Google to have Material Design all over the Web and app market. With Google's branding being implemented everywhere, end-users become familiar with Material Design websites and apps.
Pixate is very similar to Sketch, is a popular tool for OS X that many app designers have started using. Sketch, however, costs $99 beyond the free trial. Pixate being free may draw more app designers to using it rather than Sketch.
