More often than not, when smartphones are brought up, the conversation gravitates to Google Android and Apple iOS. However, we often forget about Microsoft’s line of smartphones which the company may be looking to further compete against the Google and Apple with their recent purchases. Sources close to The Wall Street Journal that are familiar with Microsoft’s latest deals, state that the company is looking to further enhance their line of mobile applications, most likely an attempt to push their smartphones and tablets beyond the competition. Microsoft has recently purchased the German startup company 6Wunderkinder, the company that has brought out the application Wunderlist to-do list and it seems to be aimed more for integration within Microsoft applications.
Though unconfirmed, the sources for The Wall Street Journal has reported that Microsoft spent somewhere between the range of $100 million to $200 million for 6Wunderkinder, a German startup company based in Berlin. This company is responsible for bringing out the application Wunderlist to-do list, an application that allows consumers on both Android and iOS to make task lists. Apparently, this isn’t Microsoft’s only purchase lately regarding mobile based applications. Acompli, a company that has brought out mobile email based apps along with Sunrise Atelier, Inc., another company that developed the Sunrise mobile calendar, has also been purchased by Microsoft within the past year.
Already 6Wunderkinder has made an update within the Wunderlist to-do list application that would allow integration with Microsoft’s Sunrise. Essentially, Sunrise users could sync their Wunderlist to-do list app with Sunrise to see tasks lists while also creating brand new lists right in the Sunrise application. If these reports are true from The Wall Street Journal, 6Wunderkinder will continue to work out of their offices within Berlin but will report directly to the Microsoft headquarters located in Washington. Neither of the two companies however, has made an official comment on the matter. This will be an interesting move on Microsoft’s part as they seem to be quickly snatching up several popular third-party applications. If this is to further excel their mobile presence and gather as many productivity applications from Google and Android, it could make for some stiff competition in the long run. As for now, consumers can still install the free Wunderlist application within Google Play.