Google acquires prototype app maker RelativeWave

This brings Google's total number of 2014 acquisitions to 32 so far

Google's acquisition streak is showing no sign of slowing down. The company is well beyond 30 acquisitions in 2014 alone!

The day after the company bought two U.K.-based artificial intelligence companies, it has now been revealed that Google has also purchased RelativeWave, a company that calls itself a "local research & development shop" for building quality apps for iOS and Mac.

RelativeWave's product is called Form; it is a tool that lets developers build custom native iOS prototypes directly on a device. They can run prototypes on multiple devices in real-time and update compositions instantly as they work.

The announcement of the acquisition was made by RelativeWave in a note on its website on Wednesday. Like many other Google purchases this year, RelativeWave will remain as an independent company, continuing to operate with Google resources.

"I'm very excited to announce that the RelativeWave team is joining Google to continue the development of Form!" the company wrote. "I speak for the team when I say that we're incredibly humbled by what the community has created with Form. We've seen people create designs that we could have never imagined. It's one of the best feelings in the world to see people using your work.

With this news, RelativeWave also announced that it was making Form free on the Mac App Store. And not only that, but it will also refund the money to those who already paid for it. 

"We want to get Form in the hands of as many people as possible, and this is our first step in accomplishing that goal," it said. And now With Google's resources behind it, RelativeWave said it will "be focused on improving the state of design and development tools."

Google confirmed the deal to VatorNews, but would not add anything to RelativeWare's post.

Google's 2014 acquisitions

Whenever Google makes another purchase, I like to include all the other acquisitions it made this year. This list is getting pretty long!

Here we go:

It bought Bitspin, the Zurich-based maker of the Timely clock app. That was followed by: cyber security Impermium; artificial intelligence company Deepmind; sound authentication firm SlickLogin; ad fraud detector Spider.io; Android game developer Green Throttle Games; drone manufacturer Titan Aerospace; back-end online retail solution Rangespan; ad attribution company Adometry; restaurant website builder Appetas; cloud monitoring service Stackdriver; Quest Visual, the company behind translation service WordLens; mobile device manager Divide; satellite maker Skybox;  video advertising company mDialog; wireless-communications startup Alpental Technologies; performance optimization platform Appurify; playlist generator Songza; smart messaging assistant Emu; video marketing company Directr; Jetpac, a company dedicated to analyzing and organizing digital pictures; and mechanical engineering and product-design company Gecko Design; Zync Render, a cloud-based visual effects storage and rendering platform; Lift Labs, the creators of an electronic device that improves the quality of life for those with Parkinson’s and essential tremor;  opinion poll provider Polar; and Firebase, a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative apps.

Earlier this week it bought artificial intelligence companies Dark Blue Labs and Vision Factory.

And, of course, the company bought smart thermostat company Nest Labs for $3.2 billion, the most the company has ever spent on a startup acquisition. Nest has since bought two startups of its own to add to the Google family: energy monitoring platform MyEnergy and video-monitoring and security startup Dropcam.

So, in all, that makes 32 acquisitions for Google so far. And there's still a month and a half left to go!

(Image source: relativewave.com)