Apple Reportedly Acquires SnappyLabs, Makers of SnappyCam Photo-Shooting App

Apple has reportedly acquired SnappyLabs, makers of the rapid-fire SnappyCam photo app that was recently removed from the App Store with no explanation (As well as their website). The news comes from TechCrunch, who claim sources have affirmed the acquisition.The startup was founded and ran solely by John Papandriopoulos, who invented a way to make the iPhone’s camera take full-resolution photos at 20 to 30 frames per second.

Sources have since affirmed that the company was acquired by Apple, and that there was also acquisition interest “from most of the usual players”, meaning other tech giants. I don’t have details on the terms of the deal, and I’m awaiting a response from Apple, which has not confirmed the acquisition.

SnappyLabs had to 'reinvent JPEG' in order to release SnappyCam, allowing them to take up to 3,600 photos a minute.


First we studied the fast discrete cosine transform (DCT) algorithms of the early 1990s, when JPEG was first introduced. We then extended some of that research to create a new algorithm that’s a good fit for the ARM NEON SIMD co-processor instruction set architecture. The final implementation comprises nearly 10,000 lines of hand-tuned assembly code, and over 20,000 lines of low-level C code. (In comparison, the SnappyCam app comprises almost 50,000 lines of Objective C code.)

By bringing SnappyLabs founder Papandriopoulos in-house, Apple has the ability to put this technology into their own camera, including the ones found in iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macs.

Pricing and other details of the un-confirmed acquisition have not been revealed. Apple has not yet commented on the acquisition.