So, remember when I said something along the lines of it being unlikely for Apple to do something with its money, “such as a buyout?” Well, I now stand corrected. Apple has just acquired WifiSLAM. What is WifiSLAM? I know, I had never heard of it either, but after looking into it, I am increasingly interested.
What this company does is map indoor locations. Sound familiar? It should. Google has just started doing something similar with its Google Maps service. It is looking like Apple wants to compete in this area.
The Wall Street Journal received confirmation from an Apple spokesperson, with all the information it could get was that Apple “buys smaller technology companies from time to time.” Nothing was given on the possible implementations of the service.
It could be assumed, however, that this will eventually make its way into Apple’s new Maps application that launched in iOS 6. Something that this would give Apple over Google is that another aspect of WifiSLAM’s technology is where the “Wifi” part of the name comes into play. The technology can tell a users location in a building using the surrounding Wi-Fi signals.
That’s pretty cool, seeing as GPS can get inaccurate indoors, and isn’t necessarily the best for such small scale location needs. I would definitely be looking out for something like this coming in the future from Apple, but no one knows for sure when, or how it will be implemented.
What do you think? Interested in seeing something like this? Wonder how soon we could have it on our devices? Let us know in the comments
