Apple’s “quiet” acquisition of Placebase in July doesn’t actually have anything to do with either Google Maps or Latitude, all speculation notwithstanding. It has to do with acquiring a technology of great strategic importance that uses maps as a starting point for something bigger.
Placebase is a mapping software vendor (yes, like Google), but with an added twist: an application publishing interface (API) giving publishers the ability to overlay maps with public or private data. If that sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve written that this kind of technology, known as “augmented reality” (AR) is the killer application for mobile devices.
To read more, please see Apple Buys Augmented Reality Vendor on my Technology Insights blog at BNET.
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