Apple May Have Bought Google Earth Competitor

Reports have emerged that Apple has purchased Web mapping software startup Poly9, which could mean the secretive company is looking to offer its own version of Google Earth.

Poly 9 makes Poly9 Globe, which it advertises here as a cross-browser, cross-platform 3D globe, which does not require any download. Google Earth provides similar mapping technology, but requires users to download a plug-in to access it.

Skype, LinkedIn, NORAD have all used Poly9’s mapping APIs for their existing products. Other than the Poly 9 Globe site and its link outs to customers that connect to the application through a JavaScript API, shreds of the company’s existence are scant.

Twitter Silent

The Poly9 Website has gone dark and the company’s Twitter account has not been updated since 11 March, which is usually a telltale sign that a company has closed or been bought out. Poly9’s Vimeo account is also calm.

The company’s LinkedIn account is barren, listing a brief description of the company and Mathieu Pichette as a software developer. TechCrunch’s Crunchbase lists Denis Laprise as Poly9’s founder.

Apple did not respond to confirm or deny the purchase, originally reported here by La Soleil newspaper in Quebec City.

La Soleil said all but two of the company’s employees relocated to Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. headquarters to work on the Apple’s Web mapping team.

Poly9 marks the second mapping acquisition Apple quietly tucked in since acquiring PlaceBase last summer.

Placebase made an API used to layer commercial and other data sets, such as demographics and crime data, onto maps. The application competed with with Google Maps, which Apple still uses as the go-to mapping application for its iPhone smartphone.

It is unclear whether Apple will continue to endorse Google’s applications when it can offer its own brand of the same apps.

Apple Vs Google

Apple has been snapping up startups in a number of areas Google already plays, even getting into online advertising by acquiring Quattro Wireless.

What is clear is that Google is facing a rival in Apple that is serious about the Web, particularly on the mobile front where its iPhone has staked a major claim and its iPad is blazing a trail for tablet computer.

To taste some of Apple’s success, companies are building smartphones and tablets based on Google’s Android operating system.