Apple Reportedly Acquires Podcast App Swell

While Apple has some pretty nicely designed apps, perhaps there have been some that they have neglected, like their Podcasts app which has been given pretty bad reviews on the iTunes App Store. Perhaps they’re looking to revamp it and perhaps they’re thinking about improving the way podcasts are discovered because it looks like the Cupertino company might have recently acquired Swell.

For those unfamiliar, Swell is basically like a Pandora for podcasts where it will help create playlists for users based on what they have searched for before. The UI of Swell has also been designed for driving which would make perfect sense if Apple were to integrate it with CarPlay. Apple’s acquisition of the company was confirmed in a boilerplate statement they released to The Wall Street Journal reporter, Daisuke Wakabayashi.

While the amount of the acquisition was not mentioned, those familiar with the deal have put it around $30 million. The Swell app has since been removed from the iTunes App Store and according to a post on Swell’s website, “Thank you for using Swell over the past year. We wanted to let you know that the Swell service is no longer available. We’ve been inspired by the opportunity to create quality products that positively impact users’ lives, and we are grateful to all our listeners. Thank you everyone for your support!”

It is unclear as to what Apple plans to do with Swell, but like we mentioned earlier, with Apple’s own Podcasts app getting bad reviews and with Swell’s design for use while driving, perhaps we could see some form of the app revitalized in CarPlay, but we guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: Apps, podcasts