Report: Apple snaps up Sweden-based 3D mapping firm

Apple Inc. has acquired a Sweden-based 3D-mapping company in an apparent bid to jazz up the maps for its iOS devices, an enthusiast site reported over the weekend. The website 9to5mac.com said Apple, which makes the iPhone and iPad, bought C3 Technologies as a possible shot at Google Maps. "We’ve now confirmed that Apple has purchased a second 3D-mapping company. In August of this year it was discovered that 3D mapping company C3 Technologies had been purchased and shut down by its buyer. While there was no true evidence for this, there was speculation that Apple could be one of a handful of companies that could be the buyers of C3 Technologies," it said. It cited sources who said C3 Technologies CEO Mattias Astrom, C3 Technologies CFO Kjell Cederstrand, and lead C3 Technologies Product Manager Ludvig Emgard are now working within Apple’s iOS division. The three, along with most of the former C3 Technologies team, is still working as a team in Sweden, it said. C3 Technologies creates high-quality and detailed 3D maps with virtually no input from humans. The 3D mapping is camera-based and the technology picks up buildings, homes, and even smaller objects like trees. 9to5mac.com said C3′s solution comes from declassified missile targeting methods. 2nd 3D mapping site bought When the original iPhone debuted in 2007, Apple’s iOS devices used an Apple-built Google Maps application to give users data for driving directions, traffic, route guidance, current location information, and details about destinations. In 2009, Apple scooped up their own mapping software development company called Placebase. In the summer of 2010, Apple acquired 3D mapping firm Poly9. "Apple’s Poly9 purchase obviously means Apple is at least interested in (or considering) the field of three-dimensional mapping solutions," 9to5mac.com said. C3 was spun out of the aerospace and defense company Saab AB in 2007, but has since redefined mapping by applying previously classified image processing technology to the development of 3D maps as a platform for new social and commercial applications. Its automated software and advanced algorithms enable C3 to rapidly assemble extremely precise 3D models, and seamlessly integrate them with traditional 2D maps, satellite images, street level photography and user generated images. Split from Google Maps While Apple and Google signed a deal to extend the use of Google Maps in iOS, Apple’s purchase of Placebase is a sign Apple is looking to split from Google’s backend control in the near future. "With Apple’s acquisitions of both C3 Technologies and Poly9, we think it is very likely that the future of iOS Maps will include a third-dimension," 9to5mac.com said. It also said Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years. The service is crowd-sourced and is another indicator of Apple moving away from Google in their iOS mapping services as Google currently supplies iOS Map’s traffic data. "We’re not expecting anything big in the immediate future but we’d be surprised to see the same old Maps program in iOS 6. Expect something much much bigger," it said. — LBG, GMA News