| Open Interface North America, Inc. | |
| Type: | Private |
| Foundation: | 2000 |
| Location: | Seattle, Washington, USA |
| Industry: | Bluetooth |
| Homepage: | www.oi-us.com (archived) |
Open Interface North America (OINA) was a privately owned embedded Bluetooth software provider based in Seattle, Washington and was incorporated in 2000 as a division of the Japanese company Open Interface, Inc., which had formed in 1992.[1] [2] Akemi Sagawa, a Microsoft product manager at the time, was hired to run it.[3] [4] Another former Microsoft employee, Greg Burns, was brought in as chief technology officer.[5]
OINA created and sold Bluetooth software stack products to chip companies with a focus on mobile devices; OINA products were included in Apple’s iPhone, Motorola’s Razr LG’s Chocolate music phone,[4] [6] and Logitech's FreePulse headphones.[7] The Logitech deal was based on OINA's product, SOUNDabout Lossless, a lossless audio codec for bluetooth; SOUNDabout had very little lag and high fidelity, supported multi-channel streaming, and allowed headphone manufacturers to avoid decoding MP3 or AAC, which would have required them to pay royalties on those decompression software packages.[2] [8] [9]
In 2004, OINA had a change in ownership.[4] According to Dashlight Systems, which was founded by Tom Nault in 2003 to develop Bluetooth technology and intellectual property, Dashlight acquired a controlling interest in OINA in May 2004 and Nault became Chairman of the Board of OINA at that time.[10]
Nault became CEO in April 2006 and Sagawa became the company president.[4]
OINA was acquired by Qualcomm in December 2007 under an agreement signed by OINA, Qualcomm, Osprey Acquisition Corporation, and Dashlight;[11] the deal terms were not disclosed.[12] [13]