Apple snaps up app-testing company Burstly

(Credit: James Martin/CNET ) Apple is said to have acquired the app-testing and analytics startup Burstly, and on Friday all but confirmed it: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," an Apple spokesperson told CNET. Burstly is the operator of popular developer services like TestFlight, which lets app makers deploy an app to a small amount of users for field testing before wider release. That way, developers can work out kinks and monitor things like in-app purchases and the app's durability against crashing, without having to put the product up for full release on an app store. The startup also announced this week that it would end TestFlight's support of Android apps on the platform -- a clear indication of Apple asserting its new ownership, taking a dig at iOS's arch rival. Android support will officially end on March 21st. TechCrunch, which first reported news of the deal, also said that the startup's engineers have already begun working at Apple. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Apple is clearly continuing its trend of scooping up smaller companies for technological gains, as opposed to bigger, splashier buys, like Facebook made this week in its jaw-dropping purchase of messaging service WhatsApp for over $16 billion.