Do you remember Apple Maps from a few years ago? Remember what a disaster and a joke that was? Apple has acquired a GPS company that could help.
Apple announced it’s acquirement of Coherent Navigation, a Silicon Valley area based mapping and positioning firm. This purchase was made to boost Apple’s presence in the GPS field. Coherent Navigation was founded in 2008 as a small commercial navigation firm. In the years that followed, navigational firms have exploded! Coherent has worked on everything from auto navigation to robotics. Coherent has worked on high precision systems, which is even stronger than consumer navigation systems, since there’s less room for error. We don’t know how Apple is going to use Coherent Navigation’s services. But the competition over navigation among major tech conglomerates continues to intensify. For years, Google has all but dominated mapping technology. In February, Uber opened a robotic autonomous research facility at Pittsburgh, PA’s Carnegie Mellon University. A group of German car makers are trying to beat Uber in acquiring Nokia Here, the digital mapping section of Nokia. There’s another reason Uber wants Nokia Here. Uber wants to lessen their dependence on Google Maps. So the plot thickens.
What’s the fight over Nokia Here got to do anything? It shows you how important mapping/GPS technology is. And with more people depending ?on GPS, the competition is going to get even more intense. Apple knows this and is doing something about it. From what I know, Coherent Navigation is a solid company to help Apple out. I’m not taking sides by any means. Personally, I’d like for businesses to remain small and I’m getting a little weary of hearing of yet another acquisition every week. But if I were an Apple executive, this is the move I would make. Do you Apple acquiring Coherent Navigation will even make a difference?