SPB Software, a division of

Yandex Yandex LLC (russian: link=no, Яндекс, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian multinational technology company providing Internet-related products and services, including an Internet search engine, information services, e-commerce, transportation, map ...

, a Russian IT company which operates the largest search engine in Russia. In November 2011

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

reported that Yandex acquired SPB Software after its own initial public offering debuted on the NASDAQ as the fourth largest

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

for all of 2011. SPB Software's most popular solution, the SPB Shell 3D, has been described by

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

as an application that makes for a much more user-friendly phone. SPB Shell 3D utilizes SPB Software's SPB UI Engine, a cross-platform modular plugin for building hyper-realistic 3D interfaces on a variety of devices. The SPB UI Engine is written in native C++. SPB also develops software running on Android,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian ...

Bada Bada (stylized as bada; Korean: ) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Samsung Electronics for devices such as mid- to high-end smartphones and tablet computers. The name is derived from " (bada)", meaning "ocean" or "sea" in ...

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

Maemo Maemo is a software platform originally developed by Nokia, now developed by the community, for smartphones and Internet tablets. The platform comprises both the Maemo operating system and SDK. Maemo played a key role in Nokia's strategy to c ...

MeeGo MeeGo is a discontinued Linux distribution hosted by the Linux Foundation, using source code from the operating systems Moblin (produced by Intel) and Maemo (produced by Nokia). Primarily targeted at mobile devices and information appliances ...

webOS webOS, also known as LG webOS and previously known as Open webOS, HP webOS and Palm webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices such as smart TVs that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initiall ...

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

7, and the

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

operating systems.

History

Formation

Formed in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia, in 1999, the company was named SPB Software House, but removed the word "House" in 2008. The company released its first mobile application in 2001 and went on to win the Pocket PC Developer Of The Year Award 2003 by Handango. The company subsequently won the same award from Handango in 2006, 2007, and 2009. SPB Software went on to develop mobile apps for a variety of platforms and expanded its title lineup to include games, utility apps and mobile OS shells. SPB Software is now developing apps for all of the major mobile phone manufacturers. SPB Software also works with phone makers and mobile operators in various countries to develop customized versions of its software and optimized applications for particular devices.

Acquisition

On November 28, 2011

reported that Yandex NV, operator of Russia’s most popular Internet search engine, acquired SPB Software "to expand mobile products and the use of its search capabilities on mobile devices." The CEO of SPB Software, Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, was appointed as EVP Mobile and General Manager by Yandex.

Products

Games

SPB Software has released an assortment of games for

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s and mobile devices. SPB Brain Evolution was named the bestselling Windows Mobile game of 2008 and as the Best Casual Game of 2009 by the online mobile software store

Handango Handango was an online store selling mobile apps for personal digital assistants and smartphones headquartered in Irving, Texas. History Handango InHand was founded in 1999 by Randy Eisenman. It is an app store for finding, installing, and b ...

. Brain Evolution is an intellectual software game that helps to train the brain and improve memory, logic, arithmetic, and puzzle-solving skills.

Headquarters

SPB Software's development headquarters are located in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Financial Headquarters are located in Hong Kong. The firm also has offices in USA, Brazil, Taiwan, and Thailand.

References

{{reflist Software companies of Russia Companies based in Saint Petersburg Russian brands