Apple has done it again. After buying Locationary and then HopStop, Apple has now bought a company called Embark, a small Silicon Valley company focused on apps for navigating mass transit. This was reported by Jessica Lessin:
We don’t know how much Apple paid for the several-person team it acquired very recently. But we heard from people knowledgeable about the deal that the company plans to directly integrate Embark’s technology into Apple Maps.
Embark, founded in 2011, builds apps for mobile devices powered by Android and Apple’s iOS with information about transit systems in about half a dozen U.S. cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Its iOS apps are still available for download, but its Android apps aren’t, according to our checks.
An Apple spokeswoman confirmed the deal and said “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” The company didn’t have any comment on the availability of the Android apps.
It’s a safe bet that the Android apps are history. Beyond that, it will be interesting to see how this purchase will help Apple make Maps useful as opposed to being second fiddle to Google Maps on my iPhone.
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This entry was posted on August 23, 2013 at 6:41 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Apple Buys Another Company To Improve Maps
Apple has done it again. After buying Locationary and then HopStop, Apple has now bought a company called Embark, a small Silicon Valley company focused on apps for navigating mass transit. This was reported by Jessica Lessin:
We don’t know how much Apple paid for the several-person team it acquired very recently. But we heard from people knowledgeable about the deal that the company plans to directly integrate Embark’s technology into Apple Maps.
Embark, founded in 2011, builds apps for mobile devices powered by Android and Apple’s iOS with information about transit systems in about half a dozen U.S. cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Its iOS apps are still available for download, but its Android apps aren’t, according to our checks.
An Apple spokeswoman confirmed the deal and said “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” The company didn’t have any comment on the availability of the Android apps.
It’s a safe bet that the Android apps are history. Beyond that, it will be interesting to see how this purchase will help Apple make Maps useful as opposed to being second fiddle to Google Maps on my iPhone.
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Related
This entry was posted on August 23, 2013 at 6:41 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.