Samsung to Put Skyhook on Mobile Devices

"Skyhook Wireless, provider of the Core Location platform, today announced that Samsung will deploy Skyhook's technology across multiple mobile devices," Skyhook said in a news release July 2. "The first handset to launch with Skyhook embedded will be the Samsung Wave" smartphone, first announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

"The Wave is the initial handset to be released with Samsung's new, open mobile platform, Samsung Bada, and is the cornerstone of the company's commitment to provide a smartphone for every lifestyle. With the addition of Skyhook, Samsung devices, such as the Wave, will better enable all location-aware applications by providing" accurate location information, the company said.

"In 2003, Skyhook pioneered the development of the Wi-Fi Positioning System to provide precise and reliable location results in urban areas," the company said.

Skyhook argued, "For some experiences, such as turn-by-turn navigation or local search, location is the central feature, but increasingly [social] applications such as Twitter, Shazam and OpenTable incorporate location to simplify user experience and to personalize content delivery."

"Samsung is committed to delivering the maximum benefits of smartphones for our customers and developer partners," said Hyungmoon Noh, vice president of the R&D planning team at Samsung Electronics. "Precise location is central to the mobile experience, and Skyhook's Core Location will provide Samsung mobile devices with market-leading location capabilities."

The company said its Core Location system "uses a combination of WiFi, cellular and GPS readings to produce a single, accurate location quickly and in all environments."

"Samsung creates innovative mobile platforms and user experiences," said Michael Shean, co-founder and senior vice president of business development for Skyhook Wireless. "Skyhook is thrilled to further enhance the Samsung smartphone experience with superior location accuracy and availability on Samsung Bada and other platforms."

According to Skyhook's Website, "The Core Engine synthesizes data from Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), GPS satellites and cell towers with advanced hybrid positioning algorithms. ... Skyhook maintains a worldwide database of cell tower locations, which increases Core Engine coverage area and helps improve GPS satellite acquisition time."

The company also said, "To develop this database, Skyhook has deployed drivers to survey every single street, highway and alley in tens of thousands of cities and towns worldwide, scanning for WiFi access points and cell towers plotting their precise geographic locations." Skyhook boasts that its "coverage area includes most major metro areas in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia."

The Samsung announcement marks the second mobile platform partnership for Skyhook in 2010: In April, Motorola announced it would deploy the Core Location platform across much of the company's portfolio of Google Android-based mobile devices.