Samsung has just announced its acquisition of Sweden based Nanoradio. Nanoradio, founded in 2004, is a fabless developer of energy efficient chipsets for Wi-Fi communications. The emphasis of Nanoradio’s semiconductor designs is on “power consumption, stability, physical size, and total cost for customers”.
Samsung’s products have a lot of overlap with Nanoradio’s chipset targeted applications which points to a canny acquisition choice by the Korean electronics giant. Samsung’s mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras and other smart connected devices can benefit from lower power use, especially in the mobile market where battery life is always at a premium. Also vital to mobile technology is miniaturisation and Nanoradio, as you might guess from the name, claims to have the smallest Wi-Fi components too.
Geoff Blaber, a software analyst from CCS Insight speaking to IDG.net, said of the acquisition “The deal is consistent with the vertical approach Samsung has taken in regards to components, and as much as anything this is an acquisition of engineering talent. It is not insignificant since Samsung very rarely makes acquisitions.” He added that integrating the Nanoradio technology into Samsung devices could give the company products extra power savings and better battery life.
The combination of both Wi-Fi and cellular radios in mobile devices is popular with customers who are often willing to pay a significant amount more to have both connections built into their device. If Samsung can save money on these chipsets, as promised by Nanoradio’s Wi-Fi technology, this would be an additional bonus for Samsung’s profitability and competitiveness. The smaller, lower power and cheaper Wi-Fi parts can give Samsung a competitive edge and/or a competitive chipset to sell to other mobile device makers.
