Tag: apple geolocation

Geolocation indoors is the next big game for Google, Apple, and eBay

| October 24, 2013

New data is showing that many of the industry giants are making location based progress.

According to some of the latest information that has been released by ABI Research, a number of industry giants – including Google, Apple, and eBay – are placing their focus on making considerable moves into the realm of geolocation and its many possibilities.

Though this is not necessarily anything new, it is the fact that they are taking it indoors that is drawing attention.

To start, the estimates by ABI Research have suggested that the geolocation indoor market will be worth more than $4 billion by 2018. This was revealed in the quarterly Location Technologies Market Data which is issued by that agency. It provides a measure of the adoption of indoor geolocation technologies, mapping, as well as businesses that are making their way into this particular space.

By the end of next year, the overall market of geolocation technology installations will be greater than 25,000.

Geolocation - Google, eBay and AppleThis, according to the ABI Research data that was released in the report. It also pointed out that smartphones that are capable of supporting indoor geolocation technology will have reached the hundreds of millions over the span of the next two years. The result is that virtually every major company will have begun to take considerable steps into this sphere.

Patrick Connolly, an ABI Research senior analyst, stated that “Apple’s new A7 co-processor coupled with the acquisition of WifiSLAM highlights indoor as a priority.” He went on to say that “Both Apple and eBay have announced support for dedicated BLE beacons, a technology that is set for a huge 2014 as major IC and device OEMs make it widely available.”

Connolly also explained that Google is maintaining an expansion of geolocation based indoor mapping and that it has been discussing some of its intentions for this technology quite openly at I/O. He also added that it isn’t just the smartphone manufacturers that are involved in this technology, as there have been four large AP providers (Motorola, Cisco, Ruckus, and Aruba) that have acquired business within this space. He noted that it was interesting to find that Nokia had held its own indoor and mapping capabilities, showing that this was being viewed as a region in which considerable future growth was possible.

Geolocation technology move made by Apple through recent acquisition

| March 28, 2013

Apple Geolocation TechnologyThe purchase of the company called WifiSLAM is reported to have been made for $20 million.

According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, Apple has just closed an acquisition agreement with a company called WifiSLAM, a business focused on a unique form of geolocation.

The purchase was of a company that concentrates primarily on building this technology.

What makes the geolocation technology from WifiSLAM as unique as it is, is that it makes it possible to obtain user positioning data while an individual is indoors – a considerable hurdle in geolocaiton until now. It is estimated that Apple paid approximately $20 million for the acquisition of the company based in Silicon Valley.

The geolocation technology company is a two year old startup that focuses on mobile apps.

These applications are able to detect the location of a user while inside a building through the use of Wi-Fi signaling technology. This geolocation technology has been offered to various app developers for use for indoor mapping and a number of different social networking and retail app purposes. It currently employs a handful of people. Joseph Huang, one of the company’s co-founders, is a former software engineering intern from Google.

This acquisition is not coming as a surprise to many in the industry. This is particularly true for those who have been keeping a close eye on geolocation developments in the war between Apple and Google in the environment of online and mobile mapping. Following the disaster that has been connected to iOS Maps through bad reviews, long lists of user complaints, and even statements against the service by the Australian government after unsuspecting users were sent into the outback, Apple is looking to make some important new moves.

Apple chief executive officer, Tim Cook, made a public apology last year, in which he admitted that the company needs to produce a product with higher quality. The acquisition of unique and forward thinking geolocation technology such as that which is offered by WifiSLAM appears to be precisely the type of direction that the company is seeking to take for the next release of this product.