Intel has signed an agreement to acquire Telmap, a company focused on mobile navigation and location-based services, search and content, for an undisclosed amount, the company said in a blog post.
The announcement was made this week during a keynote at the Intel AppUp Elements 2011 in Seattle, an annual gathering of developers, Peter Biddle, general manager of AppUp, said on Wednesday.
Telmap provides white-label, hosted and managed location-based services to mobile operators globally, the Israeli company said earlier this month. Its customers include Orange FT Group, Vodafone, Vodacom, SFR, O2, Telefonica, SingTel, Optus, Cellcom, and Pelephone. Telmap said in a Twitter message late Thursday that it has been acquired by Intel, and was joining the family.
The proposed acquisition is a step for Intel to expand its mobile software services capabilities as it continues to grow in the area of software and services.
Telmap, which provides an integrated, uniform experience across consumer devices, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel. It has expertise around end-to-end mobile local search, mapping and navigation services, delivering multi-platform consumer experiences, Biddle said.
With Telmap, Intel said it can directly provide developers with location-based services spanning devices, operating systems and CPU architectures.
Telmap will allow Intel to provide AppUp developers with differentiated location capabilities in the form of a standard set of location-based APIs (application programming interfaces) and software that developers can easily integrate into their AppUp apps, Biddle said.
“The new cross-platform location capabilities will allow developers to not just retain their users but delight them via in-app and in-experience location features that they just can’t really do today,” he added.
Intel said at the conference that 807,000 applications have been downloaded and 350,000 consumers have registered to use its AppUp store. The store, which launched in 2010, was designed to spur application development for netbooks, but also includes apps for PCs.
John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John’s e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com