Apple has expanded its technology portfolio with a discreet but significant acquisition of Blinksight, a French start-up specializing in geolocation. This strategic integration, revealed by L’Informé, played a crucial role in the development and improvement of Apple products, in particular AirTags.
A silent transaction, overshadowed by discretion, played out in the world of technology, revealing a strategic maneuver by Apple. It has just integrated the French start-up Blinksight, specializing in precise geolocation solutions, into its portfolio. It is L’Informed who reveals the information.
The profile of Blinksight: specialist in geolocation
Blinksight, founded in 2011 not far from Caen, is the work of engineers from Philips and ST-Ericsson. The company’s flagship product is an innovative chip designed to precisely locate objects in an enclosed space. This technological initiative is the result of a collaboration with Imec, a Belgian microelectronics research institute, and Holst Centre, located in the Netherlands.
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The product developed by Blinksight was crucial for companies wanting to track the position of their goods in real time or optimize their production lines. The technology in question is based onUltra Wide Band (UWB)a radio technology allowing objects to be located on a map with remarkable precision, within a few centimeters, while preserving the energy autonomy of the devices concerned.
Integration at Apple: towards technological synergy
Apple’s acquisition of Blinksight remains discreet, but deliberate. Apple legal figure Peter Denwood now assumes leadership of Blinksight, signaling the company’s de facto integration into the California-based tech titan. Peter Denwood is notably involved in the management of different branches of Apple in France, including Apple France and Apple Retail France.
This secret financial operation, although the amount remains unknown, has been described as a success for the founders of Blinksight. The technology developed by the start-up is also echoed in Apple products, notably the AirTags launched in 2021, which exploit the principle of precise geolocation initiated by Blinksight. This is also the case for the latest iPhone 15 Pro.
Both versions are equipped with a chip Ultra Wideband second generation, which expands their connectivity area with other iPhones with the same chip, tripling the range previously observed.