Apple confirmed as buyer of 3D mapping firm

Apple has been confirmed as the the buyer of 3D maps company C3 technologies, which was sold over the summer to a undeclared company. The C3 mapping team have remained in their Swedish offices according to 9to5Mac whose unamed sources tipped it to the involvement of Apple, but the C3 team are all working now on a product for …

[Spearchucker Jones]

They'd better come up with something...

...now that Nokia's Windows Phones have 3D (and-works-offline) Drive and Maps apps. The killer feature (for me, being in London) is route planning using public transport* - which (AFAIK) is only done by Nokia so far.

* On the phone - I'm not interested in browser-based implementations.

[Anonymous Coward]

From what I understand, this *is* what's behind Nokia's 3d maps. Make of that what you will.

[Meeee]

Nah, none of this "make of that that you will" stuff... here it is, plain and simple:

There goes the last possible reason to buy a Nokia phone, the offline mapping, enhanced reality, 3D rendering stuff.

There goes the last jewel in Nokia's crown, the mapping business, which was probably worth more than the rest put together. Complete lack of strategic vision... Nokia's toast... burnt together with its platforms.

[PlanB]

_

@AnotherNetNarcissist: That's also my understanding. So the real question is: what will happen to Nokia's 3D maps now?

[Lance 3]

Nokia owns Navteq and they have 3D maps. So why would Nokia use maps from another firm?

"With some 3D data now in hand, Navteq has begun selling what it calls Enhanced 3D City Models. It can be used in navigation devices to give people in cars or on foot a better graphical idea of their surroundings, the company said.

Navteq said it's showing off a True-equipped data collection vehicle and the 3D city maps at CES in Las Vegas this week.

The Enhanced 3D City Models are available for the United States, with Europe, Asia, and South American models scheduled to arrive later this year. The True system is being deployed in the United States first, with Europe to follow soon and Asia coming later in 2010.

Navteq's move to slurp up 3D data is no surprise. Microsoft said in December that its Bing Maps service will use the Navteq 3D imagery."

What Apple has bought is a company that has been use declassified material; so it is not even the same technology being used.

Google has been collecting its own Street View imagery with 3D laser technology since at least 2008."

[Anonymous Coward]

Google Maps for iPhone

Maps for iPhone also supports route planning with public transportation, including when the bus will leave (assuming you are in a town where the information is reliable). No navigation yet, though; and that is Apple's fault, since they are the one developing the app, even though it uses Google maps data.

[Anonymous Coward]

Google Maps does public transport

I used that maps process to find my way to Clerkenwell the other day.

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem for nokia is that their 3d mapping technology is licensed from C3 so now that Apple have bought them they should be worried that the license will be canceled.

[thechevron]

I would love love love to see google pull youtube from every apple device.

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck has this got to do with anything, other that your ridiculous devotion to the club of Larry and Sergey? Fucking androids...

[cloudgazer]

I'd hate to see that, because it would be a real shame to see Google get dragged through the kind of anti-trust case that would result.

[Mad Hacker]

Huh?

Why exactly?

[Lance 3]

That would be easy; get rid of H.264 and only support Flash and WebM. Problem solved. That forces Apple to support WebM or Flash, their choice.

[cloudgazer]

No discussion of google maps is ever complete

without xkcd

http://xkcd.com/461/

Will Apple get me past the spectral wolf?

[Clive 3]

Siri

"After the success of Siri" - from the reports I have read I would question whether this is a success. Most commentators say it is a "work in progress"