Devicemakers
There are millions of iPhones on the market today. Despite stunning sales figures, the iPhone's initial adopters shared a complaint: that it lacked accurate location technology. Without location awareness, the device could not help users find their own location, provide meaningful local search, or instant directions from a users' current location.
Apple wanted to add a software-only location system to the Wi-Fi-enabled iPhone. It required superior performance, with quick time-to-fix and high accuracy in urban areas. Apple also required international coverage that would match the iPhone's international deployment.
Apple needed revolutionary positioning to match its revolutionary devices. It chose Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System. Skyhook addressed Apple's needs by providing a highly accurate, reliable, commercial-grade positioning system that required no new hardware or complicated device integration.
When Apple's CEO Steve Jobs announced Wi-Fi location for Apple's mobile devices at Macworld in January 2008, he commented on the technology: "Isn't that cool? That's really cool.... And it works doggone well." After his announcement, Wi-Fi location became available to all iPhone and iPod touch users with a simple firmware upgrade.
- On the left, iPhone without Skyhook: Imprecise and not acceptable to users
- On the right, iPhone with Skyhook: Accurate and meaningful for users
iPhone 3G
At the WWDC in June of 2008, Steve Jobs announced the revolutionary iPhone 3G. Skyhook's technology continues to be used on the iPhone 3G, as Jobs emphasized the importance of having all three dominant location technologies (GPS, WPS and Cell ID) on the iPhone: "Location services is going to be a really big deal on the iPhone -- you saw a bit of that here today, it's going to explode. We get location from cell towers, from WiFi, and now we get it from GPS."
The deployment of Skyhook's location system on millions of iPhones and iPod touch devices has won accolades from consumers, analysts, and the press worldwide.