Samsung acquires NewNet Communication Technologies
It’s been a busy week for Korean tech giant Samsung. Earlier today, we reported that they would acquire Harman International Industries. In addition to that purchase, Samsung announced yesterday that they had acquired NewNet Communication Technologies, a leading Rich Communications Services (RCS) provider based out of Canada. With the acquisition, Samsung hopes to “accelerate the deployment of RCS-enabled networks” and improve their existing messaging platform.
Samsung said that because of the acquisition, customers will “benefit from an advanced messaging experience with features such as enhanced calling, group chat, and the ability to easily share and transfer large files including multimedia and high-resolution photos.”
As the mobile world moves toward the RCS standard, this purchase will position Samsung to be more competitive. Unlike other similar messaging technologies, like those used in iMessage and WhatsApp, Samsung says this technology will allow users to communicate on any network. Currently, messaging apps like WhatsApp are proprietary, and you can only message other users that have the correct app. Essentially an enhancement to the tried-and-true SMS standard, RCS has a rich feature set, such as allowing read-receipts for text messages and improved media transfer.
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