14 DAY TRIAL // Today, mobile phone maker Motorola announced the purchase of Aloqa GmbH, a privately-held developer of location-based software and technologies that offer smartphone users the possibility to discover relevant web content.
According to the company, Aloqa has joined Motorola Mobility, which includes Motorola’s Mobile Devices and Home businesses, and which should be spun off from Motorola, Inc. in the first quarter of 2011.
For the time being, the company did not unveil specific info on the purchase.
Aloqa’s technologies and services are based on the location, identity and social relationships of users and deliver them info on places, events, bargains and other opportunities.
“For example, if Aloqa’s software recognizes the user is in a certain region, it will offer him the top events of the day or special offers of leading discounters in the vicinity,” the company announced.
Aloqa's products are distributed as a mobile application for various smartphone platforms out there, including Google's Android operating system. The company's solutions have been already downloaded by over one million users.
Motorola also announced that the purchase is meant to further enhance Motorola’s MOTOBLUR solution, which has been designed so as to offer customized content straight to the handset's home screen.
“Aloqa is an exciting addition to Motorola Mobility as its specialized engineering talent and location-tracking technology will significantly accelerate the release of our context-aware mobile services platform,” said Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services product management for Motorola Mobility.
“Aloqa’s core technologies, user database, and specialized skills are a strong fit with our planned server-side context delivery architecture and will further enhance Motorola’s MOTOBLUR capabilities. We welcome Aloqa’s highly skilled personnel to the Motorola Mobility team.”
MOTOBLUR already offers users the possibility to get Facebook, MySpace and Twitter updates on their homescreen. The solution should integrate Aloqa’s open, location-triggered mobile push platform for the delivery of more content.
“We are proud that a global mobile giant like Motorola chose the Aloqa platform as a core part of its future in location technologies,” said Sanjeev Agrawal, chief executive officer of Aloqa.
“Like every startup, we have always dreamed of our technology and product being used by tens of millions of satisfied users everywhere. Being a part of the Motorola Mobility team will help us achieve this goal.”