Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Software, Internet Tools
Apple bought mapping service company Placebase
Seth at Computerworld has noticed Apple's purchase of Placebase, the former mapping service company that GigaOm was praising last year. Of course, this begs the question: Will Apple be rolling their own maps?As Gizmodo says, Apple uses the technology they buy (Coverflow, for example). We were unfamiliar with the service, but GigaOm describes some sweet features like PushPin, which provided developers with an API that could layer commercial information, crime data, etc. on a map. For a nice example of PushPin at work, check out PolicyMap.
Now for the baseless assumptions. Google maps appear in a number of Apple products, like the iPhone, iPhoto and iWeb. Perhaps Apple plans to stuff their own solutions into those slots. Or perhaps they're after a certain technology from Placebase and not the whole enchilada.
Note that the purchase went down back in July. Seth has also discovered that PlaceBase's founder and former CEO, Jaron Waldman, is now a part of Apple's "Geo Team," which sounds like the Justice League but with Al Gore in charge.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
erik said 11:04AM on 10-01-2009
mom, dad! our mall got a mapple store!!!
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Colin S. said 11:13AM on 10-01-2009
One other thing to keep in mind...Often Apple buys a company not for the specific product they make, but for the talent of the team the company has. They may very well buy the company, only to have them develop something Apple wants made that it thinks that company's team is capable of developing.
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LAGal said 11:52AM on 10-01-2009
more like they buy for a combination of both product and team. they see the team's talent in the product but it's not quite to 'apple standard' or even strong enough to be real competition in the market and they want to give the team a leg up. many times its a lack of money. so they buy it, keep the folks on and oversee development, really push them to go better. Generally it comes to a good end for everyone.
in this particular case, this split with Google and all the various legals involved could be a factor. Apple might feel they need to get as much Google off their devices as they can. to avoid any notions of inappropriate linkage or favoritism. having an internal map software would be a step that way
Rick Fernández said 12:34PM on 10-01-2009
This does NOT beg the question. It raises or urges the question, but it doesn't "beg" it - which doesn't even make sense. Please look up the proper usage of that constantly misused expression on Wikipedia.
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ilkyone said 12:55PM on 10-01-2009
ah yes... wikipedia, that all encompassing, and trustworthy source of facts and authority. free of all bias and opinion. wikipedia is truth!
Dan Lovejoy said 1:37PM on 10-01-2009
Wikipedia may or may not be complete rubbish, but its "Begging the question" article is spot on. It's very irritating to see this expression misused so often.
Jason said 12:42PM on 10-01-2009
I don't think we have to worry about Google maps getting replaced on the iPhone or in the Apple desktop apps that use it anytime soon. I've played around with the Pushpin technology a few times, and while it has potential, it is in no way ready for prime time. There are some serious flaws at this point.
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macserv said 1:34PM on 10-01-2009
Reminds me of KHTML, back in the day.
SL said 1:59PM on 10-01-2009
Could this play into any plans for augmented reality browsers or apps?
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David Roessli said 12:33PM on 10-03-2009
Pushpin works well in the US in terms of available data and resolution, but its on a worldwide scale, it is way poorer than that of Google's.
I don't see Apple won't swapping Google Maps for Pushpin in its present state.
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