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Google acquires drawElements to help them tackle Android fragmentation

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Google DrawElements acquisition

Adding to Google’s ongoing business ventures comes the acquisition of drawElements, a 3D graphics firm based out of Finland that provides graphics analytics across various hardware. Google’s Android department has long been looking for new ways at combating the still very real “fragmentation issue” — the cold reality that comes with dealing with such a wide variation of hardware — so the taking of drawElements under its wing sounds like a match made in heaven.

While it’s true there are a variety of software benchmarks to help test performance, but drawElements work goes beyond that. drawElements’ Quality Program software (dEPQ) is able to product quality, providing developers with detailed comparisons across hardware to find out exactly what about the hardware was causing incompatibility. With this information, it doesn’t seem too far fetched to see how Google could later set basic hardware guidelines OEMs can adhere to in order to ensure everything works properly with the latest or future versions of Android.

Of course, drawElements sounded more than excited about the move, announcing on their site:

“We’re excited to announce that we’re joining Google. Thanks to everyone who has helped us along the way; we’re grateful for your support. Over the next few months, we’ll be working with our colleagues on the Android team to incorporate some of our technology into the compatibility test suite. Stay tuned!”

Although specific terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, expect the dollar amount to hit somewhere around the 8 figure mark.

[via ArticStartup]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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9 Comments

  1. About.Damn.time.

      1. That’s just great haha

  2. Chris you might want to proofread this “drawElements’ Quality Program software (dEPQ) is able to product
    quality, providing developers with detailed comparisons across hardware
    to find out exactly what about the hardware was causing incompatibility.”

    Little lost on what you want to say with that

    1. I got lost on my way to lost trying to read that sentence.

      Good thing I don’t use Apple Maps when finding my way back…

  3. Hey, that’s a Cobra Mk III!

  4. so does this put to bed the rumours of the international company they were looking to buy being spotify?

  5. Not going to solve it, they would still have to wait on manufacturers to update and that simply takes time.

  6. Fragmentation occurs because almost all phones come with locked bootloaders, you can’t upgrade if you can’t unlock. Many phones that have the hardware to put a better(newer) os on them, can’t. There’s too much control over this from the carriers. Gingerbread, would be dead, right now, even on older midrange phones, if the bootloader was unlockable. There should be a law that says the info should be made public, after a certain amount of time(1year, two years?), or a warranty, that states “at your own risk, and voids your warranty” , but carriers, mfgs, should not make that decision for something that you bought, it’s your phone, bought with your money. Imagine if you bought a car, and the mfg, dealer said you’ll void the warranty , if you use a brand of tire, that was different than what came with it. or you couldn’t put fuzzy dice on your rearview mirror. Too much control over things, that shouldn’t be.

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