Ahead of the weekend, Apple confirmed its acquisition of crowdsourced location data company Locationary.
Steve Dowling, an official Apple spokesperson, says the purchase is consistent with Apple’s history of buying “smaller technology companies from time to time.”
Dowling, however, wouldn’t reveal much more, only saying that “we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
Plans for this company, of course, are pretty clear. Apple needs as much help as it can get in the arena of mapping and location.
“Not only does Locationary ensure that business listing data is positionally accurate,” John Paczkowski of All Things D observes, “it ensures that it is temporally accurate as well (i.e., the restaurant I searched for is still open for business and not closed for renovation or shuttered entirely).”
Paczkowski thinks Apple’s focus on “clean location data” could really improve Apple Maps and help the company better compete with leading rivals in these key aspects of the modern mobile experience.
No financial details pertinent to the acquisition were made available.
