Apple acquires web-based mapping company Poly9

By on Jul 14, 2010 at 6:30 PM
Rumor July 14, 2010

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A report in the Wednesday edition of the French Canadian news site cyberpresse.ca suggests that Apple has acquired Poly9, a Canadian company that develops a web-based mapping program. According to the report, Poly9 has shuttered its Canadian office and pulled down its website. All of Poly9′s employees have been relocated to Apple’s Cupertino campus and are forbidden to speak of the deal due to confidentiality agreements that were presumably signed as part of the acquisition. Apple has not officially commented on the acquistion so we will have to wait and wonder what the Cupertino company is planning to do with the second mapping company it has taken under its wing. Any thoughts?

[Via AppleInsider]

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  • BP

    Engadget had this hours ago..

    • Droid Does

      Yes, but Engadget has their heads so far up Steve Jobs ass that they can hear the echoes of his thoughts.

  • BP

    WHy did my comment get deleted?

  • Mrwirez

    Maps? That seems a little silly to me… GOOGLE has the market cornered… Maybe Apple should fix the iphone first..

    • bonesb

      Your map comment is written like a true noob. True, Google’s done wonders with its Keyhole purchase a few years ago, but GMaps really does have a long way to go when compared to what came before it, for example http://map.search.ch/ – better and more up to date data, better results. Transit, services, weather, traffic – all present for years on the Swiss site – Google’s “innovations” are generally copied from better sites like this one. Check it out before you flame or judge – I use both.

      • http://www.absolutefiction.com Rono

        Failed to impress. And it’s not user-friendly at all. Looks more like 20th century tech. Where’s streetview in there?

  • TheOtherGeoff

    err… your question seems a little silly to me.

    If you want to control the location based ad market, you want to control the maps sources. If Google/AdMob are your competitors against iAd… best get a mapping source underneath it all.

    We don’t care who does the most maps… the question is, who should know where iP* users are? Should google know? no.

    Since the underlying data is the same (Google doesn’t own the data, just their rendering of it), bringing this inhouse allows Apple to tie it to iAd and other location based services

    The question is… will this further alienate iP* users who like he value ad that google maps provide.

    That said, individual apps, can call whatever backend map service they want. GasBag used Bing instead of Apple/Google because it was faster (MUCH!).

    And Google is still and app on the system, and Google Maps is still HTML compatible, so no one is being told they Can’t use Google maps.

    bottom line… if part of mobility services is knowing where you are (and reflecting it within your mobile device) maybe the supplier of my phone should provide it, and not my suppliers competitor.

    Maps are one thing I think need fixing. As noted in the more cogent analyses of what is wrong with the iPhone 4… it’s that it’s more flaky where ATT sucks than it use to be… if ATT didn’t suck the Antenna ‘problem’ would be an interesting youtube thingee, and not a ‘death grip’ hyperbolic problem.

    • NuShrike

      This sounds like a smart move, since the premier mapping software are in your competitors hands (Google, Microsoft, not Yahoo) whom would launch improvements for their own mobile platforms first.

      This is low-hanging fruit to polish Apple’s vertical integration.

    • Eric Schmidt

      Great points but us android fans don’t listen to reason. We’re g-sheep and if google doesn’t like it or if it goes against google then we don’t like it. No matter what. In addition we believe that if something is good for apple we get upset. The best day of our lives would be whenever we kill apple and long live htc!

  • Matt

    I hate it when Android fans come onto Apple Threads and posts and trash Apple. When will they realize that if the iPhone was never made, they wouldn’t have their cheap knockoffs…

    • Joey

      Options:
      A) Ignore the problem
      B) Add to the problem
      C) Post a mild admonishment disguised as a multiple-choice question.

    • Eric Schmidt

      Oh gosh we will never admit that. You’re out of line mister. Google, and as an extension, any partner of google can’t do no wrong and apple do no right. They truly believe google mantra, which in fact is bs.

    • Eric Schmidt

      In addition we realize that our choice is iffy and as such we must spend our time in apple posts criticizing apple and their fanboys cause it makes us feel better. Since our own os is so fucked up. Regardless if we admit it or not. And we know it’s going to get worse when the competition gets tough among manufacturers and profits suffer and they go elsewhere.

    • http://www.absolutefiction.com Rono

      Those cheap knockoffs are making Stevo and his gang sweat bullets and ignore common sense. How can that be?

  • MikeD

    This is getting more and more interesting. A second purchase by Apple in the mapping arena. What could they up to?

  • iamajim

    knowing crApple it’s all about making money on something everyone else is getting for free; this has to do with iad and selling applecores more content.

  • http://www.meegodeveloper.us meego developer

    Nokia came out with the same concept and got it approved from china
    Now lets see what Apple makes out of it

  • http://alghienkad06.student.ipb.ac.id thea

    cool

  • http://buku.um.ac.id fajar

    wow…

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