Apple Acquires Mass Transit App Creator Embark
In late July Apple acquired New York based HopStop, a location based company specializing in transit information. They were ranked the number one transit app in iTunes and Google Play with over three million downloads to date. It's now being reported that Apple has just acquired yet another Geolocation company called "embark." Their public transportation navigation app is currently available on Apple's App Store.
While the company is currently located in New York, their service is touted as also being available in Washington D.C, Chicago, San Francisco and London. Now that they've been acquired by Apple, the service is likely to rapidly advance globally over the next few years.
Embark's Promotional Video
The companies claim to fame is providing services related to underground trip planning (even without a cell signal), interactive maps, step-by-step, scheduling and advisories.
A former WSJ reporter Jessica Lessin who first broke the story today noted that BMW was an early investor in the company. BMW is also one of the companies that are known to be supporting Apple's "iOS for the Car," an in-vehicle service that will debut late next year in new cars.
Below is a graphic showing the 17 known car manufacturers on board with "iOS for the Car" with BMW being noted in the number one position.
Some of the technology that Apple has just acquired is likely to roll into iOS for the Car in some capacity. More importantly, Apple has gained another knowledgeable team to expand Apple's iOS for the Car and mapping services in general.
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Do you know if the iOS in the car will have yearly software updates from Apple?
Posted by: Landrie K | August 23, 2013 at 07:38 AM