Intel acquires mapping company Telmap
updated 11:15 pm EDT, Thu September 29, 2011
Chip maker dropping support for MeeGo
Intel has announced that it has moved to acquire Telmap, an Israeli company that specializes in location-based products and services for mobile devices. The buyout is aimed at bolstering Intel's consumer services division, providing an additional incentive for developers to create content for the chip maker's AppUp application portal.
AppUp general manager Peter Biddle suggests the Telmap acquisition will enable Intel to provide developers with an alternative to Bing and Google for location-based search, mapping and navigation content within apps. Services based on Telmap technology will be offered without the licensing agreements required by Google and Microsoft.
"Developers can provide an in-app experience without someone getting in between them and their users," Biddle told AllThingsD. "We are not trying to get in between."
The Telmap acquisition was announced at Intel's AppUp Elements developer conference, where the company also admitted it will be dropping support for the MeeGo OS. The focus will transition to Tizen, another Linux-based OS that is being codeveloped by Samsung.
