Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Development
    • Development
    • IT Management
    • Mobile

    Apple, Google, Microsoft to Dominate Indoor Map Market: Report

    By
    Michelle Maisto
    -
    June 14, 2012
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Apple, Google and Microsoft are expected to be the dominant providers of mapping services€”for indoor spaces.

      A July 14 report from IMS Research expects that the mobile giants, already tussling over city views, will next set their sights on indoor spaces like airports and shopping malls. By 2016, IMS expects nearly 120,000 indoor venue maps to be available to consumers.

      During Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote address June 11, the iPhone maker introduced, as expected, a proprietary mapping solution, enabling it to end its partnership with Google, whose Maps app is said to be the second most-used app by iOS devices after iTunes.

      “The announcement of Apple providing its own mapping solution comes as no surprise, with rumors of this circulating for some time, as a result of the firm’s previous acquisitions in the area,” wrote Alex West, an IMS research director.

      In addition to striking a deal with TomTom, Apple acquired Placebase, Poly9 and C3 Technologies.

      “Apple has been trying to wean itself off of its dependence on Google,” West continued. “The release of Siri with the iPhone 4S represented a different way to search the Internet, bypassing Google entirely, and its recent iPhone application utilized OpenStreetMap data.”

      Indoor mapping, IMS believes, could represent the next area where Apple and Google will work to out-compete the other.

      In December 2010, Microsoft’s Bing Maps began including mapping information for malls and airports, and Google Maps added the same in November 2011.

      “When you€™re inside an airport, shopping mall or retail store, a common way to figure out where you are is to look for a freestanding map directory or ask an employee for help,” Google vice president of Engineering Brian McClendon wrote in a Nov. 29 blog post. “Starting today, with the release of Google Maps 6.0 for Android, that directory is brought to the palm of your hands, helping you determine where you are, what floor you’re on, and where to go indoors.”

      When a user hovers the blue dot over a location, Google went on to explain, detailed floor plans automatically appear. At the time, it said it had partnered with some of the largest airports, retailers and transit stations in the United States and Japan, including Mall of America, IKEA, Macy’s and Chicago O’Hare and Narita International airports, among others.

      IMS notes that Micello, Aisle 411 and Pointe Inside all have “significant” indoor map databases, with Micello being the market leader by far.

      With “advertising revenue generation potential offered through indoor positioning and the impending improvements to indoor location technology on the horizon,” according to IMS, Micello and the others seem ripe for acquisition.

      At WWDC, Apple and TomTom announced still more turf they’re looking to take over: the car. While Microsoft has deals with Ford and Kia, Apple announced that Land Rover/Jaguar, BMW, GM, Mercedes, Audi, Toyota, Chrysler and Honda will all integrate Siri-like buttons into the dashboards or steering wheels of their vehicles within a year.

      Follow Michelle Maisto on Twitter.

      Avatar
      Michelle Maisto
      Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×