Tag: geolocation mobile app

The 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.

The latest mobile marketing efforts from the social networking giant could include location tracking.

Sources with knowledge in the areas have revealed that Facebook currently has a team developing a smartphone geolocation app that will track user locations in order to help to boost the effectiveness and relevance of the social media experience on those devices.

The app is currently believed to be slated for a mid-March release for more than a billion users.

According to the sources – who have opted to remain unnamed as the company has yet to release the details of this geolocation project to the public – the main purpose of the app is to allow its users to be able to find friends who are nearby. Regardless of whether or not the app is actually open on the handset, it will still collect data for this and other purposes that are relevant to the application.

This geolocation app is only one of many features that Facebook is continually adding to its mobile experience.

The company may also be using the geolocation data that it receives through the app to be able to enhance the profitability of its mobile marketing efforts – which it has announced will be a primary goal for 2013. This would allow it to gain access to a tremendous amount of user location information, as there are currently over one billion people who use their mobile devices to access their Facebook accounts.

The geolocation information that will be gathered will present a considerable mobile marketing opportunity for the social network, as it will be able to sell ads based on the daily habits and the whereabouts of the app users. This could prove to be highly appealing to many companies who are seeking just this sort of opportunity to take advantage of the high tech benefits that m-commerce has to offer.

At the same time, many consumers and privacy advocates have already been raising concerns about the way that the company manages the personal data that it collects and this may only incense them further. They are not alone in their doubts of the social network’s management and protection of sensitive data, as it has also received the scrutiny of European and American regulators.

Facebook is not alone in this type of geolocation initiative, as both Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have already both created and implemented their own versions of location tracking.