The Wall Street Journal has reported that California-based tech giant Apple has purchased indoor location tech startup, WiFiSLAM for roughly $20 million. Apple has verified the deal, but the technology leader did not reveal its purpose for acquiring the “indoor GPS” company. WiFiSLAM has developed a technology that tracks the location of a mobile device or smartphone by using WiFi signals. “Allow your smartphone to pinpoint its location (and the location of your friends) in real-time to 2.5m accuracy using only ambient WiFi signals that are already present in buildings. We are building the next generation of location-based mobile apps that, for the first time, engage with users at the scale that personal interaction actually takes place. Applications range from step-by-step indoor navigation, to product-level retail customer engagement, to proximity-based social networking.”
The only reason that one could think of Apple’s purpose behind purchasing WiFiSLAM is that with its technology the Cupertino-based corporation can create indoor mapping solutions just like Google. The search engine giant is already using the mapping software that backs indoor maps of several dwellings and venues. Therefore, in order to compete with Google, Apple would like to have a similar mapping app for its devices. WiFiSLAM’s technology looks quite similar to that of SkyHook, a partner of Apple, which utilizes cellular tower and WiFi signals to locate iOS devices without using a GPS chip.
Back in 2011 cofounder of WiFiSLAM, Anand Atreya, gave out details of the company’s technology and how it works:
“Users collect the data passively by walking around the building — that means the phone needs to be left on with Wi-Fi enabled, which can affect battery life. Another possible pitfall would be changes in Wi-Fi hotspot locations, although the company notes that most businesses leave their routers in place for a long time after setting them up, and new fingerprints are always being gathered, making updates pretty simple.”
Last year Appl replaced Google Maps with its very own service, but unfortunately the tech giant’s mapping app was not up to the mark. Due to this reason, not only did Apple receive a lot of criticism for replacing Google maps, but in different parts of the world, people got lost while using Cupertino company’s mapping apps. Since then Apple is looking to improve its mapping app and because of this very reason WiFiSLAM was able to grasp the attention of the iOS device maker and now finally the two companies have concluded the deal.
Source: 9to5Mac
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