Google acquires mobile app prototyping tool Pixate to boost its design team

Google has acquired Pixate, a visual prototyping platform that allows designers to create sophisticated, fluid mobile prototypes that run natively on iOS and Android devices.

The deal has already yielded fruits for users with Google and Pixate making Pixate Studio, the desktop editor for creating Pixate prototypes, free and reducing the cost of the Pixate cloud service, to only US$5 per designer per month, orUS $50 per designer per year.

The trend of big companies acquiring small companies will continue for the unseeable future. What will be important going forward as this becomes common would be what pressure startups cave under when a big shark comes knocking.

They will have to weigh the option of agreeing to being completely taken over and face the possibility of being shut down or negotiate for a deal that allows them to continue operating as standalone entities.

Read more: Google buys AI company Deepmind in ongoing Internet of Things landgrab

A few months ago, Tempo, a promising smart calendar app was acquired by Salesforce and shut down immediately, much to the dismay of those (me included) who were part of its beta testing phase for Android.

The deal will see Pixate remain active and will not be shutting down. It states on its website that “Pixate will continue as a standalone product without any interruption to the service or support”

It does however warn its users that for now their data will continue to exist in its new cloud plan, keeping the same privacy and security as before, and that should anything change, it will alert them.

Read more: Google buys Quickoffice, looks to integrate into app suite

Pixate CEO, Paul Colton, said that this move allows the company to embark on big projects.

“Our small team at Pixate has some really big ideas, and with the help of Google we’ll be able to bring those ideas to the design community at scale. We’ve become an essential part of the workflow for tens of thousands of designers, and are excited about expanding our mission at Google to reach millions of product teams worldwide”

Google has said that it is exciting to have Pixate onboard as it adds to its ongoing effort to develop new design and prototyping tools.

The success of Material design language, Google Design team has enjoyed success and companies like Pixate can help to make the designs better.

In addition to Pixate, Google acquired Form 1.3, a design tool to build and customize native prototypes directly on iOS devices.