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Here’s everything that Apple is doing in Europe
Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla/Julie Adenuga/Getty Images Europe
The world’s most valuable company doesn’t just confine its activites to America. It’s also working hard in China and emerging markets, and has an extensive network of factories and acquisitions in Europe.
Apple has an important new factory in Ireland, and it has acquired several UK and European tech startups, in addition to its retail stores and offices around the continent.
But that’s not all it does here.
Novauris Technologies – the heart of Siri
Novauris Technologies formed a major part of Apple’s Siri personal assistant. The company started in 2002, composed of former employees from popular dictation company Dragon Systems. Novauris created accurate speech recognition technology that could work out what you were saying on your phone, meaning that voice input didn’t have to be sent to servers to decipher.
Like many of Apple’s acquistions, the fact that Novauris had joined Apple was meant to be a big secret. But the company gave the game away when a TechCrunch reporter called its office in 2014 and someone anwered the phone with “Apple.”
It looks like the companys technology is now being used as part of Siri. CEO Yoon Kim now lists on his LinkedIn profile that he manages Siri at Apple in San Francisco.
Holyhill factory – makes iMacs
Apple is expanding its UK factory in Hollyhill, Cork. The facility combines both an office and a sprawling factory that’s being used to assemble iMac computers.
The Irish Independent reported that Apple is undergoing “major expansion” of its Irish office, and it invested €300 million into the development. One local resident says that Apple “basically owns an entire hill” in Cork.
Hollyhill – building driverless cars?
There’s a slim chance that Apple could be using its factory near Cork in Ireland to build the rumoured Apple driverless car. It’s hiring as part of the factory expansion, and the roles it’s hiring for seem to be connected to the automotive industry. That’s not proof in itself, though.
But if Apple were to develop a car, then it would want to do it in secret. Where better to do that then on Apple’s very own hill in Ireland?
Metaio – Apple’s German augmented reality unit
Apple acquired German augmented reality company Metaio in May for an undisclosed figure. The company was started in 2003, and enabled developers and companies to use augmented reality in their projects. Augmented reality is where you take the real world and change it slightly on a screen, unlike virtual reality, which is an entirely new world.
Apple has been experimenting with virtual and augmented reality, even patenting a virtual reality headset that could be paired with an iPhone. It looks like Metaio’s product will now be used inside Apple for upcoming virtual reality projects.
Pop-up shop in Selfridges – Apple’s luxury watch store
Apple built a pop-up shop in the Wonder Room of department store Selfridges in London.
Apple’s section, in the corner of a room that sells luxury jewellery from established designers, was used to showcase the Apple Watch when it went on sale.
Redmatica – music sampling from Italy
Redmatica was an Italian software company that Apple snapped up in 2012. It was the developer of the popular Keymap Pro program that musicians and DJs used to create realistic samples of music. Apple liked the idea, and acquired Redmatica. CEO Andrea Gozzi now works for Apple in Hamburg, Germany.
London office – PR and iTunes
Apple’s sprawling London office is actually just around the corner from its iconic flagship Regent Street store. It’s home to lots of different Apple departments, including marketing, PR and the iTunes team.
There’s not a lot to see inside the office (Tim Cook isn’t driving around in an Apple Car), but it does have a very fancy iPad-controlled coffee machine and a product “shop” where staff can get their hands on Apple products the same way they are displayed in a store.
Polar Rose – facial recognition
Polar Rose is another of Apple’s interesting acquisitions in Europe. The facial recognition startup was founded in Malmö, Sweden in 2006, but abruptly closed its service in 2010. It’s believe that Apple paid around $22 million for the company due to its unique technology.
Polar Rose let users run photos from Flickr and Facebook through its system, and it would then analyse the images to see which faces it could identify. It was neat technology, and was rolled into the iPhones Camera and Photos apps.
Cambridge – research and development
Apple is staffing up in Cambridge, and opened a new office in the city that has room for up to 40 staff. The Cambridge office is reportedly going to serve as Apple’s UK research and development centre. There’s been a tech scene in Cambridge for decades, due in part to the prestigious university on its doorstep, which gives the company a stream of talented technologists and scientists.
imsense – HDR photo enhancement
Apple acquired the small Cambridge startup imsense in July 2010. The news was kept secret, though, and people only noticed when Apple rolled out the company’s technology in an update of its iOS mobile operating system.
imsense created technology that enhanced photos by bringing out details that you might have missed. Apple acquired the company, and turned that into the HDR mode that shipped with iOS 4.1.
Seele – Apple’s glass factory in Germany
German glass manufacturer Seele is Apple’s preferred supplier of glass panes, and has worked with the tech company for years on everything from its iconic Fifth Avenue glass cube through to the manufacture of 2,400 giant panels for its giant new circular Campus 2 in San Francisco.
Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the Seele factory in Augsburg, Germany when he visited Europe in February.
AlgoTrim – data compression
AlgoTrim is a super-technical company that Apple acquired back in 2013. The Swedish startup, which launched in 2005, specialised in data compression. It promised to keep your photos looking detailed, but at a smaller file size (just like the company in TV comedy “Silicon Valley”).
Apple likely bought AlgoTrim so that it could fit as much media as possible on devices. 9to5Mac points out that buying the company outright and owning its technology was probably cheaper than licensing the software.
Ireland and Denmark – new data centres
Apple has announced that it will build new data centres in both Ireland and Denmark. They’re going to be giant facilities, and the company is spending over £1.25 billion on the two locations. Apple says each site will measure 166,000 square metres and they are expected to be up and running by 2017.
PRSS – Apple’s News app …?
One of the surprise announcements in Apple’s WWDC 2015 keynote was the launch of News, an app that lets publishers share articles direct on Apple’s platform to readers. It’s an Apple-style take of Facebook’s Instant Articles.
Now, we don’t know exactly who was behind the news app. But it looks very similar to PRSS, a digital magazine company from Holland that Apple acquired in 2014. The company created a tool that let publishers create iPad-ready magazines that look great on iPads. Now the company founders are working at Apple in San Francisco, and presumably helping run the News app.
Milan Design Week – where they give out gold Apple Watche bands for free
Apple hosted an event in Italy for some of the biggest names in the fashion world during Milan Design Week. It handed out special bands for the gold Apple Watch Edition that were never made available in stores.
Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive was on hand to take selfies with attendants.
Colette in Paris – Apple Watch demos
Apple used the Colette store in Paris as a showcase for the Apple Watch, and created a pop-up store inside the luxury retailer so that eager journalists and customers could get hands-on demonstrations with the watch.
BBC Radio 1 – the place Apple poaches talent for its new Beats 1 radio station
Apple hired BBC Radio 1′s star presenter Zane Lowe in February to become the face of its news Beats 1 internet radio station. But it didn’t just stop there. It also hired Lower’s producer, as well as other staff members from the BBC who worked on radio and the BBC’s “Introducing” scheme for new music. BBC staff reportedly referred to the wave of hirings as the “Apple crumble.”
C3 Technologies – 3D maps
Apple acquired Swedish company C3 Technologies around 2011. It ran the company as a separate unit, codenaming it “Sputnik.” C3 created the nifty 3D maps that you see on Apple’s very own mapping app.
Interestingly, the technology behind the 3D maps was only made possible by the declassification of missile targeting methods used by its former parent company, defence contractor Saab AB.
Semetric – music rights sale tracking, a key piece of Apple Music’s back-end revenue operation
Semetric was a British startup that ran a popular piece of software called Musicmetric. It let record labels and rightsholders track sales, illegal downloads and social media statistics for releases. It became a popular tool, and Apple snapped up the company in January to integrate it with iTunes and Apple Music.
Julie Adenuga – London’s Beats 1 host who may be about to become the most important British person in pop music
Apple’s Beats 1 internet radio station will broadcast from three cities at launch: Los Angeles, New York and London. The on-air voice of the London segment will be Julie Adenuga, the relatively unknown British DJ who has presented a radio show on community radio station Rinse FM for five years.
If Beats 1 is succesful she could become a massive global tastemaker.
Now see:
APPLE WATCH UNBOXED »
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