Locationary Apple

• Locationary Apple Cider Vinegar
• Locationary Apple Pie
• Locationary Apple
• Locationary Apple Orchards
• Locationary Apple Carplay

It has been confirmed today that Apple has purchased a new company this month with the acquisition of the Locationary, sometimes referred to as the “Wikipedia” for companies.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling confirmed the deal of Locationary that is a small Canadian startup, backed by Extreme Venture Partners and Plazacorp Ventures and headed by CEO Grant Ritchie.

The acquisition is thought to be purchased as part of Apples plans to improve its mapping service following on from the launch of its launch on to iOS devices last year which was received with mixed reviews.

“It uses crowdsourcing and a federated data exchange platform called Saturn to collect, merge and continuously verify a massive database of information on local businesses around the world, solving one of location?s biggest problems: out-of-date information.”

Apple is deepening its mapping skills, buying two start-ups that specialize in location technology. Apple said on Friday that it had bought the two small companies, HopStop and Locationary, giving Apple more expertise in an area where it has struggled. HopStop is an application tha. Jul 19, 2013 Apple is facing stern competition from market incumbent Google in the online mapping tools market but from now on it is getting help from a Canadian big-data startup, Locationary. On Friday it was reported by AllThingsD that the Toronto bcompany had been snapped up by Apple for an undisclosed amount.

• Jul 19, 2013 Apple has acquired Canadian big data startup Locationary for an undisclosed sum, a report confirmed on Friday. The news, which was first reported by AllThingsD, now pegs in as the fourth.
• Interestingly, Locationary CEO and founder Grant Ritchie penned a piece at TechCrunch last fall, detailing “5 Big Map App Issues Apple Must Solve.” The article focused on the difficulty of.

Source: All Things D

Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals

Apple’s mapping-related acquisitions keep rolling along. Last week it was revealed that the company snapped up Embark, my favorite app for navigating NYC Subways. Lots of speculation has been swirling around these moves, as it goes for all things Apple. But a lot of it has been misdirected (bad pun intended).

First, as background, this marks the third acquisition (not counting the Waze miss) in five weeks to strengthen Apple’s backbone in mapping and navigation. Locationary standardizes local business listings, while HopStop and Embark specialize in different flavors of navigation and public transit. These features were clearly missing in Apple Maps’ famous fail.

But moreso than the features, these post-Mapgate acquisitions are all about what’s behind the scenes in this age of big data. This goes back to what a lot of people don’t realize about Apple Maps: it’s is actually a pretty slick mapping tool. But what it has in dazzle, it lacks data; things like place listings, navigation and public transit.

For the sake of comparison, these are precisely the things Google has built by collecting mapping and routing data from hundreds of billions of queries since Google Maps launched in 2005. Any good mapping engine will iterate and apply this data to get better over time. In other words mapping is a game ultimately won on data — not flyover imagery.

I wrote as much before Apple Maps launched, when the beta was unveiled at last September’s iPhone5/iOS6 launch:

However one thing Apple could underestimate is that mapping and local search are games ultimately won on function over form. In other words will it find what I’m looking for, regardless of pretty flyover images of Big Ben?

That’s governed by the local data and algorithms that deliver relevant search results. And this is new territory for Apple, which is now cobbling together a silo’d list of local content partners like Yelp and Waze.

Locationary Apple Cider Vinegar

Now realizing this, Apple’s is playing catch-up. And since it doesn’t have the time to build mapping data a la Google, it’s applying a tiny slice of its $145 billion cash reserve to buy its way out of the problem. The latest acquisitions achieve some degree of listings integrity and navigation, especially public transit directions famously lacking in Apple Maps.

While there’s been lots of agreement on most of the above, the punditry has unraveled in effectively answering the question of “why?” Apple’s intentions have been characterized by many as a play towards going deeper into ad monetization. Picture a sort of local flavor of iAd, fueled by local search queries and mapping impressions.

I don’t disagree that this will happen, but here’s the thing: it will be secondary to Apple’s true play which at all times is to sell more iThings. Because Apple is a company that makes most of its (very healthy) margins from hardware sales and carrier subsidies, most of its moves work toward making iPhones and iPads more attractive consumer purchases.

It reminds me of Google entering new areas as loss leaders to boost or establish positioning of its core search revenues (Android’s true play). With Apple, just look at the numbers: there’s a far greater economic stake in the core revenue stream of selling iThings than in entering the the competitive and challenged mobile local ad game where it has no footing.

That core business has created one of the most valuable companies on earth with 2012 revenues of $156 billion, gross margins around 37 percent and a $145 billion checking account. Meanwhile, mobile local search — though it’s dear our hearts — has annual revenues of $1.3 billion, growing to $5.6 billion by 2017 according to BIA/Kelsey projections.

The bottom line is that local search is on Apple’s radar but let’s be sure to call it what it is: a revenue diversification play. This stems from maturing iPhone sales and a stock price that reflects it. New penetration is to be had with a lower-priced “iPhone 5C” in high-growth developing markets, but Apple will need other growth areas to justify its massive valuation.

Locationary Apple Pie

Locationary Apple

That’s where mobile local search could come into the picture, but for now it’s almost a rounding error for a company like Apple. The numbers point more towards to the need for a better mapping engine to protect sales of massively profitable iThings first and foremost. This is pressured further by an increasingly competitive SamDroid to the East.

Locationary Apple Orchards

One thing is for sure: Apple has lots of ground to cover if it’s to continue to buy the equivalent lead time of local search and navigation data that Google has amassed and put to work over the past 8 years. The company’s local search and mapping acquisition spree isn’t over: good news if you’re in the local mapping and data game.

Mike Boland is senior analyst at BIA/Kelsey, where he heads up the firm’s mobile local coverage. Previously, he was a tech journalist for Forbes, Red Herring, Business 2.0, and other outlets.

Locationary Apple Carplay