Just days after Apple confirmed its acquisition of crowdsourced location data company Locationary, the Cupertino, California-based tech giant is making waves with another acquisition this week.
Apple, it seems, has acquired transit navigation app developer HopStop. And although Apple has similarly confirmed the newest purchase, the company will say little about its future plans for the company.
The plans, however, couldn’t be any more clear.
The purpose of the acquisition of HopStop, sources close to the deal admit, was evident from the start. The purchase gives Apple the ability to integrate mass transit directions into its embattled Apple Maps.
“Apple Inc. agreed to buy online transit-navigation service HopStop.com Inc., people with knowledge of the deal said, seeking to improve mapping tools after a rocky debut for its directions software last year,” Bloomberg reports.
HopStop, based in New York, provides directions for more than 140 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. and six other countries, according to its website.
