It appears that Apple is looking to improve its Maps product with its latest acquisition, WiFiSlam.
Over the weekend The Wall Street Journal confirmed that Apple had acquired the two-year-old startup WiFiSlam for $20 million. The startup developed a method by which phones can detect where a user is inside a building by using Wi-Fi signals. The company has been in the process of offering up the technology to retail and social networking developers for some time now.
Google has been developing its own version of this technology for some time now, although it has been restricted to locations such as malls, stadiums and airports. Apple has not confirmed what it plans to do with WiFiSlam as of yet, but considering that the company replaced Google Maps with its own mapping app last year – much to the chagrin of users – it is probably a safe bet that this is eventually destined for the company’s own product.
[Source: TechnoBuffalo]