Qualcomm announced today its acquisition of U.K. mobile user interface developer Trigenix. The $36 million cash purchase will enable Qualcomm to wed its BREW client software with Trigenix’s technology suite to bolster its existing UI offerings, improving wireless device customization for network operators and device manufacturers in addition to speeding the time-to-market of next-generation handsets.

"[Trigenix’s UI solution] allows you to customize your handset like the desktop on your PC," said Gina Lombardi, senior vice president of marketing and product management at Qualcomm. "With our current BREW solution, we have a UI toolkit, and acquiring Trigenix offers us additional tools for customization."

According to Lombardi, Trigenix was named a BREW developer this past summer, going on to create a series of handset skins for Qualcomm’s partners. "We noticed [Trigenix] was very adaptable, agile and innovative, and that our culture and their culture are quite similar," she said. "We felt like they definitely had the right mindset to help us move forward--they allow people to personalize and customize their handsets, which is where BREW is heading."

Lombardi said Qualcomm expects to fully integrate Trigenix’s technology into its UI toolkit by early 2005. Qualcomm also hopes to expand on Trigenix’s existing operator partnerships overseas: "We think it will be a nice technology play and a good relationship opportunity," Lombardi said.