Smith Micro Software
Encyclopedia
Smith Micro Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:SMSI), founded in 1983 by William W. Smith, Jr., is a diversified developer and marketer of both enterprise and consumer-level software solutions and services. Though headquartered in Aliso Viejo
, California
, Smith Micro maintains multiple domestic and international offices, with US locations in Mountain View
and Watsonville
, California, Chicago, Illinois
, and Pittsburgh
, Pennsylvania
, as well as international locations in Europe
and Asia
. Recently, the company has shifted focus toward network connection and security technologies, and begun forays into the evolving wireless media industry, as indicated by major partnerships with cellular service providers such as Verizon Wireless
, AT&T
, and Sprint Nextel
.
and fax
software technology, distributing predominantly to OEM computer software/hardware manufacturers. By the early 90s, the company had become one of the leading names in its industry niche. With an IPO in 1995, Smith Micro became publicly traded in the NASDAQ
under the symbol SMSI. Initial stock offering values were approx. $12.75 per share.
By the late '90s, dial-up internet access was being replaced by broadband
technology, due to the substantially higher speed and reliability it afforded. This change led Smith Micro to re-apply its network connection expertise to new, wireless and mobile network software. Network connection management became a specialization of the company and, as such, Smith Micro developed products of interest to large-scale mobile network operators such as AT&T
. While fax and minor modem-related products were still being sold, wireless connection manager technology was the company's primary source of revenue in the early 2000s.
In 2005, Smith Micro moved to expand its consumer product line with the acquisition of Allume Systems
and their StuffIt
data compression software. Shortly after the acquisition of Allume Systems, Smith Micro further expanded its market presence with the purchase of Israel-based image editing company, PhoTags. Following these and other acquisitions (e frontier America) and (busineSMS.com Software) Smith Micro expanded its overall consumer business presence, though retained a central focus on network and wireless-related products. In early 2008, the company expressed interest in WiMAX
broadband, a newly developed cellular technology, typically considered to be a 4G
wireless protocol, and a candidate for the replacement of current 3G
cellular systems.
Server and device management
Mobile convergence
Multimedia
Graphics and utilities
Aliso Viejo, California
Aliso Viejo is a city in Orange County, California. It had a population of 47,823 as of the 2010 census, up from 40,166 as of the 2000 census. It became Orange County's 34th city on July 1, 2001, the only city in the county to incorporate since 2000...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Smith Micro maintains multiple domestic and international offices, with US locations in Mountain View
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
and Watsonville
Watsonville, California
Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 51,199 according to the 2010 census.Located on the central coast of California, the economy centers predominantly around the farming industry. It is known for growing strawberries, apples, lettuce and a host...
, California, Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, as well as international locations in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Recently, the company has shifted focus toward network connection and security technologies, and begun forays into the evolving wireless media industry, as indicated by major partnerships with cellular service providers such as Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, and Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
.
Corporate history
In the company's early days, Smith Micro centralized its product focus on dial-up modemModem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
and fax
Fax
Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
software technology, distributing predominantly to OEM computer software/hardware manufacturers. By the early 90s, the company had become one of the leading names in its industry niche. With an IPO in 1995, Smith Micro became publicly traded in the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
under the symbol SMSI. Initial stock offering values were approx. $12.75 per share.
By the late '90s, dial-up internet access was being replaced by broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
technology, due to the substantially higher speed and reliability it afforded. This change led Smith Micro to re-apply its network connection expertise to new, wireless and mobile network software. Network connection management became a specialization of the company and, as such, Smith Micro developed products of interest to large-scale mobile network operators such as AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
. While fax and minor modem-related products were still being sold, wireless connection manager technology was the company's primary source of revenue in the early 2000s.
In 2005, Smith Micro moved to expand its consumer product line with the acquisition of Allume Systems
Allume Systems
Allume Systems was a software developer, originally founded in 1988 by David Schargel and Jonathan Kahn in New York City as Aladdin Systems to develop, publish and distribute software for personal computers. Allume was incorporated in January 1989...
and their StuffIt
StuffIt
StuffIt is a family of computer software utilities for archiving and compressing files on the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows platforms: it was originally produced for the Macintosh. An old version for Linux and Sun Solaris 2.7 or later is also available...
data compression software. Shortly after the acquisition of Allume Systems, Smith Micro further expanded its market presence with the purchase of Israel-based image editing company, PhoTags. Following these and other acquisitions (e frontier America) and (busineSMS.com Software) Smith Micro expanded its overall consumer business presence, though retained a central focus on network and wireless-related products. In early 2008, the company expressed interest in WiMAX
WiMAX
WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
broadband, a newly developed cellular technology, typically considered to be a 4G
4G
In telecommunications, 4G is the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to the 3G and 2G families of standards. In 2009, the ITU-R organization specified the IMT-Advanced requirements for 4G standards, setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s...
wireless protocol, and a candidate for the replacement of current 3G
3G
3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the International Telecommunication Union...
cellular systems.
Key products
Connectivity and security- QuickLink Mobile
- QuickLink Mobility
Server and device management
- QuickLink Mobility Server
- QuickLink Mobile Server
- insignia
- StuffIt Wireless
Mobile convergence
- QuickLink Voice
- QuickLink Messenger
- QuickLink PhoneSync
Multimedia
- QuickLink Media
Graphics and utilities
- Graphics - Poser, Anime Studio, Manga Studio, GroBoto, ArtRage Deluxe, Pixelmator, muvee Reveal, STOIK Imagic, STOIK PanoramaMaker
- Compression - StuffIt
- Productivity - FAXstf Pro, JobFinder, OrgChart, QuickVerse, TurboProject
- Performance - CheckIt, ExecutiveSync, Internet Cleanup, Spring Cleaning,
- Entertainment - Aquazone, Digital TV 4 PC 2, TuneRanger
- Mobility
Major acquisitions
| Acquisition date | Company | Business | Country | Value (USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allume Systems Allume Systems Allume Systems was a software developer, originally founded in 1988 by David Schargel and Jonathan Kahn in New York City as Aladdin Systems to develop, publish and distribute software for personal computers. Allume was incorporated in January 1989... |
Software / Data compression Data compression In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use.... |
$11 million | ||
| PhoTags | Software / Image editing Image editing Image editing encompasses the processes of altering images, whether they be digital photographs, traditional analog photographs, or illustrations. Traditional analog image editing is known as photo retouching, using tools such as an airbrush to modify photographs, or editing illustrations with any... |
 IsraelIsrael The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... |
$6 million | |
| e frontier America | Digital distribution Digital distribution Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,... / Graphic design Graphic design Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience... |
-- | ||
| Ecutel | Software, wireless Wireless Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications... |
$8 million | ||
| PCTel Wireless | Software / Wireless Wireless Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications... |
$59.7 million | ||
| Core Mobility | Software / Wireless Wireless Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications... |
$20.2 million | ||