Rumor has it that Apple, is about to spend $30 million to swallow Swell, a news and podcast curation app. A lot has been going on for Apple, and this seems to be their next goal.
Swell is an app that is considered by some as the “Pandora of the talk radio.” Anything that has been said over the microphone, there’s a great chance that Swell has it. It also offers first rate content from the likes of NPR, ABC, iTunes, ESPN, CBC and BBC.
After spending $3 billion for acquiring Beats, Apple is trying to make a broad ecosystem of audio products. It sounds a lot like Apple is trying to win over the world’s ears. What Beats is to music, Swell is to podcasts.
Swell will be shutting out their app this week. But most of its employees will be joining Apple, and some will be mingling with the people from Cupertino Borg. This seems like Apple is acqui-hiring for the algorithms and and the talents who developed it. They truly are farming out talents on the software side of things.
What’s more interesting is how Google, the search engine giant and Apple’s nemesis, is one of the original investors in the aforementioned app.
On the other hand, this may seem as a good move for Apple since their current podcast app is rated 1.5 out of five stars.
“Swell provides fast, easy access to quality streaming content with zero effort. Our algorithms effortlessly connect listeners to content given their preferences and the wisdom of the community. In the U.S. alone, commuters spend 500 million hours per week getting to and from work. People often feel disconnected or bored when driving, exercising, or in the kitchen, and terrestrial radio doesn’t give people any choice, or control over time and place. Swell solves this problem. We respect the time people choose to spend with us,” stated Ram Ramkumar, co-founder and CEO of Swell.
Despite their ability to zero in on news and information, the app’s downside is their lack of stable customer base. By the looks of it, Apple thinks the problem is solvable.
Aside from these, Apple also purchased BookLamp, a company that devises recommended book reading lists for users. This is undoubtedly, the Pandora for books.
Apple is definitely on the rise to ensure that their music streaming services won’t go obsolete, just like what they did to CDs a decade ago.
