Apr 1, 2020 - Technology

Apple buys weather app Dark Sky

Dan Primack

Apple acquired paid weather app Dark Sky on Tuesday for an undisclosed amount.

Why it matters: This is a double-coup for Apple. It may use Dark Sky to improve the iPhone's default weather app, which currently gets its data from The Weather Channel, and it plans to kill the Android version of Dark Sky.

It'll also shut off the Android version's API in 2022 — thus giving it some competitive advantage among those who swear by Dark Sky's hyperlocal forecasts.

Between the lines, via Axios' Ina Fried: Android users relied on the app too, as did third-party software that relies on Dark Sky's API.

Return on investment: In 2015, Dark Sky's co-founders took some investment from a firm called Applied Invention.

The bottom line: "It feels petty, which is both fair (it’s how Android users feel!) and wildly unfair (Apple doesn’t run a charity and has no obligation to help Android users out)," writes Dieter Bohn from The Verge.

Go deeper: Why Apple may move to open iOS

Add Axios on Google

Apple buys weather app Dark Sky

What to read next