Apple (AAPL) has bought photo camera app start-up SnappyLabs, a move to help keep photo technology moving and one that could continue the AAPL stock rally that seems now to be losing steam.

In a statement to Re/code, Apple stated that “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Via Techcrunch:

The startup was founded and run solely by John Papandriopoulos, an electrical engineering PhD from the University Of Melbourne who invented a way to make the iPhone’s camera take full-resolution photos at 20 to 30 frames per second — significantly faster than Apple’s native iPhone camera.

Papandriopoulos built his burst-mode photo technology into SnappyCam, which he sold in the Apple App Store for $1.

AAPL stock is up nearly 11% in the past three months, but over the past few weeks it has been slowly losing steam — down 4% in the past 4 weeks.

As Techcrunch right notes, the acquisition “of an extremely lean, hard technology-focused team (of one) fits with Apple’s MO. It typically buys smaller teams to work on specific products rather than buying big staffs and trying to blend them in across the company.”

Last week, International Business Times dropped a story on how AAPL stock may suffer a hit due to a downgrade:

Apple Inc shares dropped 1.12 per cent on Jan. 2 after receiving a “Market Perform” rating from a Wells Fargo analyst. Maynard Um downgraded Apple’s stocks from an Outperform rating to Market Perform due to market concerns. He maintained the stock’s valuation between $536 and $581. Wells Fargo has become skeptical of Apple Inc because of gross margin concerns.

As AAPL continues to push its technology boundaries — and this acquisition is another prime example — then AAPL stock should continue to be the steady investment that many continue to say it is.

AAPL stock is up 1.6% from this time last year.