Apple Buys Metaio For Augmented Reality Technology

Apple (AAPL) reportedly bought Metaio, a developer of augmented reality (AR) technology the vendor may use to bolster its virtual reality efforts.

Metaio is no AR newcomer, launching operations in 2003, sporting 1,000 customers, 150,000 users in 30 countries and a large development community. The company, which maintains offices in Munich, Germany and San Francisco, lists Thomas Alt as chief executive, Peter Meier as chief technology officer and Jurgen Sturm as RGB-D group leader, according to Crunchbase.

Metaio is funded with undisclosed money from Atlantic Bridge and Westcott, TechCrunch reported.

Apple issued its standard statement on smaller acquisitions, which stands in for an actual confirmation: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Metaio appears to have shuttered its website, posting this statement: “Metaio products and subscriptions are no longer available for purchase. Downloads of your previous purchases will be available until December 15th, 2015, and active cloud subscriptions will be continued until expiration. Email support will continue until June 30th, 2015. The Helpdesk remains available for reference until December 15th, 2015.”

A TechCrunch source reported that some of Metaio’s customers are ““flipping out” after the company posted a shut-down message on its website without any communication from the vendor.

Metaio’s customers may be concerned about the fate of the company’s tools. TechCrunch reported that its projects have yielded AR tours of Ferraris and enhanced visuals of tours of historic places.

The AR market is said to be poised to heat up in the near term, serving as a natural complement to the growing virtual reality segment. For example, 9to5Mac recently reported that Apple is prepping a new iOS project code-named Proactive that leverages Siri and other features to provide timely information and points of interest to users through an AR interface working with Maps.