In its continuing effort to improve its mapping service, Apple has acquired transit service HopStop.com. News of the deal comes on the heels of the reported purchase by Apple of Locationary, a crowdsourced location service.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) agreed to buy online transit-navigation service HopStop.com Inc., people with knowledge of the deal said, seeking to improve mapping tools after a rocky debut for its directions software last year.
Apple confirmed the acquisition in a statement to AllThingsD, but of course declined to comment further: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” HopStop is a service that offers detailed subway, bus, train, taxi, walking and biking directions to more than 600 cities throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The company offers an iOS app in the App Store. The acquisition of HopStop should allow Apple to improve its mapping services, adding real-time information on public transportation routes and improved walking/biking directions. HopStop is available FREE for the iPhone in the App Store. [DIRECT LINK] HopStop is available FREE for the iPad in the App Store. [DIRECT LINK]
