Author: Lucy

Technology news from India shows its market is a top priority for manufacturers

| March 29, 2013

India Technology NewsThe country is becoming one of the largest emerging markets in the world.

Apple and Samsung are battling it out through technology news headlines as they press more heavily into the largest emerging market for smartphones and tablets: India.

This report was first made through the Economic Times in India, which indicated that Apple is stepping it up.

The report showed that Apple was revving up to add an entirely new level to the battle with its competitors in that region. It is expected that by the end of 2015, the presence that Apple has established in India will be three times what it is today.

Within three years, Apple may be making new technology headlines through a massive expansion.

The latest statistics are indicating that Apple will be expanding to over 200 locations throughout India. This is considerable technology news as that country has traditionally been quite low on the priority scale for that mobile manufacturer. However the surprising sale of iPads and iPhones in that region, in combination with the considerable progress that Samsung has been making in its own penetration within Apple’s traditional American marketplace and other locations around the world, have caused Apple to look again at this South Asian nation.

Apple is now giving India far more priority as a new growth market, which is a top concern on the manufacturer’s list. Over the last few months, the company has done everything it can to help to boost the user base of its mobile devices in India. For instance, at the end of 2012, it was making technology news headlines when it started to authorize the use of payment plans in order to assist potential iPhone customers to be able to more easily purchase the smartphone inside the country.

According to the IDC research director, Venu Reddy, earlier this year, “In Q4, Apple has turned out to be the number two player in India. And this means that they have done a significant shift in their positioning.” At the moment, Samsung is still keeping up its technology news headlines as the leading smartphone vendor in the country. That said, Apple is on the move and is now closing in on this market’s leadership.

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.