Logitech acquires smartphone accessory design house TT Design Labs
Remember hearing Tim Cook's admission during his lovefest with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at D11 that Apple had swallowed up something like nine companies since the beginning of the year? Well, they're not the only tech company making acquisitions, and one on a much smaller scale was announced today -- Logitech, the manufacturer of a lot of tech accessories, announced that they're acquiring TT Design Labs.
If you're like me, your first response was "Who?" and you'd be entirely justified. But upon further research, I discovered that I was familiar with the company. TT Design Labs, a tiny two-person design shop consisting of Derek Tarnow and Zahra Tashakorinia, is the company behind very interesting iPhone accessories. The first was the TidyTilt (image above), which can be best described as a Smart Cover for iPhone. It's a tiny little foldable magnetic cover / stand that also serves to hold headphones and do other amazing tricks.
TT Design Labs then came out with the JustMount on Kickstarter, a wall mount designed to magnetically hold an iPhone for hands-off viewing or FaceTime action. Both products will be available from Logitech starting today, and the two TT Design Labs employees will continue on in their duties; Tarnow will be a full-time Logitech employee, while Tashakorinia will be providing consulting services on an ongoing basis.
The TT Design Labs acquisition is a perfect example of how crowdfunded projects can evolve into deals that benefit everyone.
