Apple has apparently bought GPS company Coherent Navigation to further bolster the expertise and technology within the company's maps group.
Update: When reached for comment, an Apple spokesperson told iMore:
Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.
Coherent Navigation, founded in 2008 and previously based in San Mateo, California would be the latest in a long line of location, navigation, and transit businesses acquired by Apple since the company decided maps was a core technology they needed to own and control. Eric Slivka, reporting for MacRumors:
One of Coherent Navigation's areas of focus was High Integrity GPS ("iGPS"), a system that combines signals from the traditional mid-earth orbit GPS satellites with those from the low-earth satellites of voice and data provider Iridium to offer greater accuracy and precision, higher signal integrity, and greater jam resistance. Iridium touts iGPS as having the potential to provide location information accurate to within centimeters.
A number of Coherent's key employees recently began working for Apple, including tech veteran and CEO Paul Lego in January and co-founders William Bencze and Brett Ledvina as of last month. Coherent's website has also been taken offline, but on April 30 the name servers for the domain were updated to point to Apple's servers.
Maps and related technologies are part of the services organization run by senior vice president Eddy Cue. Previous acquisitions include PlaceBase, Poly9, C3 Technologies, Pin Drop, WifiSLAM, Locationary, Hopstop, Embark, and Broadmap.
Transit directions, street view, and web-based maps remain among the largest features Apple has yet to ship. Coherent Navigation and its team, rather than aiding to round out Apple's offering, seem better aligned to make existing services even better.
Olivia Wilde
Megan Fox
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