Apple “Embarks” On Another Mapping Acquisition

Last month Apple bought Locationary and Hop Stop. The point of the first was to improve the overall quality of local data for Apple Maps and the second was for mass transit information. Apparently, according to former WSJ reporter Jessica Lessin, Apple has made another buy for transit purposes. The company has acquired app developer Embark. […]

Chat with SearchBot

EmbarkLast month Apple bought Locationary and Hop Stop. The point of the first was to improve the overall quality of local data for Apple Maps and the second was for mass transit information. Apparently, according to former WSJ reporter Jessica Lessin, Apple has made another buy for transit purposes.

The company has acquired app developer Embark. The company offers free public transit apps for 10 US cities — though its ambitions are global. Interestingly BMW was one of its investors.

Key features of Embark apps are:

  • Step-by-step trip planning
  • Offline functionality
  • Notifications (e.g., re delays)

Apple likely acquired the app for the data, its functionality (which will make its way into Apple Maps) and probably also the team.

It will be interesting to see where Apple Maps is relative to Google Maps in six months. Google has been introducing new features to Maps, some derived from the Waze acquisition. And its reputation continues to be much better than Apple Maps’.

Emark transit app

The Embark acquisition marks the seventh company Apple has bought related to mapping and/or location.

Related Entries


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Greg Sterling
Contributor
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.