14 DAY TRIAL // News broke out this past weekend that Apple had gone and purchased a GPS company for $20 million / €15.4 million. But why on Earth would Apple want indoor-mapping technology, when its global-scale Maps application still needs a lot of fixing?
And the answer may be simpler than we thought. “Why not?”.
Why not fix Apple Maps and give it some additional functionality while you’re at it? Google has been steadily implementing indoor GPS features for a while now, and Apple would better not lag behind.
The GPS company’s description states that WifiSLAM technology allows 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,” states WifiSLAM.
The technology can be used in applications for step-by-step indoor navigation, product-level retail customer engagement, and proximity-based social networking, according to just a handful of examples from WifiSLAM.
Also worth noting is that the acquisition gives Apple both new technologies, and new talents.
One of those talents is Joseph Huang, a former Google employee and a co-founder of WifiSLAM.
Huang has “industry experience in robotics, computer vision, software/web development, integrated circuits, finance, telecom, embedded systems,” according to his profile.
Other WifiSLAM staffers may have crossed the bridge over to Apple (as part of the acquisition), including Jessica Tsoong, who has a background in finance and sits on the Columbia Entrepreneurship Advisory Board.
Another two may include Darin Tay (an engineering intern with experience in Google services), and Dave Millman (who has published work on indoor positioning systems).