It can be tough for wireless carriers and users alike to sort out the increasingly complex mash-up of mobile devices and data. The ongoing releases of new handsets, software, and digital content makes it difficult to keep all the pieces working together smoothly. Synchronoss Technologies (Nasdaq: [[ticker:SNCR]]) in Bridgewater, N.J. develops software platforms that work behind the scenes to automatically handle some of the complicated tasks necessary for such devices to connect hassle-free over networks. And now this twelve-year-old company is broadening its reach.
Synchronoss’s platforms are used for a variety of tasks such as activating service subscriptions for wireless devices and transferring content and data from one gadget to another. The company provides activation and connection software for devices such as tablets, laptops, data cards, smartphones, and network-enabled cameras. Users may not realize Synchronoss’s software is at work keeping devices in synch—and that is precisely the point.
In January, Synchronoss branched out big time with its $45.5 million buyout of Marseille, France-based software developer Miyowa. Synchronoss may pay up to $13.5 million in addition if Miyowa’s business meets certain quarterly targets. Biju Nair, Synchronoss’s executive vice president of product management and chief strategy officer, says Miyowa’s software aggregates social networks and messaging for users of connected devices into one platform. That helps address the problem of status updates and other communications creating knots of data traffic on networks. “Feeds like Twitter, Facebook, and instant messages can be very chatty,” Nair says. “It creates a lot of congestion.”
Miyowa’s software platform can also reduce the power drain on mobile devices by consolidating social communications, so there’s no need for separate software to be running each service. Network operators and individual users of Miyowa’s platform can set parameters that control which updates from social networks get sent to the devices. “That way I’m not getting updates on every single comment on a picture on a Facebook page,” Nair says.
Miyowa’s technology also offers data compression to help trim back the burden on networks. For example, its software optimizes high resolution photos for
