Motorola today announced the acquisition Aloqa, a privately held developer of location-based software (LBS) and technologies that are designed to enable the discovery of relevant web content by mobile smartphone users. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Aloqa joins Motorola Mobility, which is comprised of Motorola’s Mobile Devices and Home businesses. Motorola Mobility is expected to be spun off from Motorola in the first quarter of 2011.
Motorola hopes the acquisition of Aloqa will serve to enhance its MotoBlur UI. Aloqa creates software that uses the user’s context (location, identity and social relationships) to inform them of places, events, bargains and other opportunities of which they may choose to take advantage. For example, if Aloqa’s software recognizes the user is in a certain region, it will offer him the top events of the day or special offers of leading discounters in the vicinity.
Aloqa distributes its product as a mobile application for smartphone platforms, including Android, and more than 1 million users have already downloaded its software.