Skyhook Wireless

Skyhook Wireless

Founded	2003
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Key people	Craig Waggy, CEO Karl Holzthum, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Rob Anderson, CTO Kipp Jones, Chief Technology Evangelist Michael Hoppman, CFO Farshid Alizadeh, CSO
Products	Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) & Loki, Context Accelerator, Precision Location, Personas for Adtech
Services	Location Based Services & Positioning Technologies
Website	www.skyhookwireless.com

Skyhook Wireless is a mobile location services company based in Boston, MA that specializes in location positioning, context and intelligence. Founded in 2003, Skyhook originally began by geolocating Wi-Fi access points and evolved with the idea that hybrid positioning technology, which incorporates Wi-Fi, GPS, cell towers, IP address and device sensors, could improve device location. Skyhook expanded their product set in 2015 to deliver advertising segments and behavioral insights; emphasizing data privatization and security for their advertising technology and mobile app customers. In 2016, Skyhook engineered Precision Location to power Wearables and the Internet of Things, and launched products Personas and Context Accelerator to help brands reach out to mobile consumers.

History

Skyhook was founded in 2003 by Ted Morgan and Michael Shean.^[1] Skyhook’s database was initially gathered through wardriving,^[2] when the company sent teams of drivers around the United States, Canada, Western Europe and selected Asian countries to map out Wi-Fi hot spots.^[3]

Skyhook powers location-based services for companies such as Apple, Samsung, Sony, HP, Dell, Sharp, Philips and MapQuest.^[4]

Skyhook received its first patent in 2007, and now holds over 400 patents across the United States and foreign markets.

In February 2014, Skyhook Wireless was acquired by TruePosition Inc, a subsidiary of Liberty Broadband.^[5] In 2016, the two companies merged under the Skyhook brand, which now rests under Liberty Broadband, which is a part of the Liberty Media family.

Coverage

To pinpoint location, Skyhook uses a reference network composed of the known locations of over 2 billion Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers. Skyhook's coverage area includes most major metro areas in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Skyhook's system can also be used to enhance the capabilities and performance of GPS enabled devices where GPS reception is weak, for example: indoors, downtown, and crowded areas.

Precision Location SDK

Skyhook offers a software development kit (SDK), which allows developers to create location-enabled applications. This uses Skyhook's software-only Hybrid Positioning System on the platform of their choice.

The SDK supports Android 2.2 (Froyo), 2.3.x (Gingerbread), 4.0.x (Ice Cream Sandwich), and 4.1.x (Jelly Bean)), 4.4 (KitKat), 5.0-5.1 (Lollipop), and 6.0 (Marshmallow) including forked platforms such as the Kindle Fire, along with Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.^[6]

Context Accelerator SDK

In 2013, Skyhook launched Context Accelerator, which uses Skyhook's location network along with venue data to give mobile users awareness of the changing world around them.

Context Accelerator enables personalized mobile experiences and enhanced revenue opportunities using our 1st Party Location Network and precisely located venues.

The SDK requires iOS 6.0+ and a device with region monitoring support: iPhone 4+, iPad (Wi-Fi only) 3+, iPad (Wi-Fi+Cell) 2+, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPod Touch 5+.

The Android SDK is supported on Android 2.2 (Froyo), 2.3.x (Gingerbread), 4.0.x (Ice Cream Sandwich), 4.1.x-4.3 (Jelly Bean), 4.4 (KitKat), 5.0-5.1 (Lollipop), and 6.0 (Marshmallow) including forked platforms such as the Kindle Fire.

Personas for Advertising Technology

Skyhook's Persona's make location data into meaningful insights and segments built on ground-truth venues and verified device signals.

Personas help optimize conversion rates, reduce wasted spend and enhance campaign performance by pairing consumers’ offline behaviors to relevant ads and offers.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.