“Apple Inc. is in early discussions to integrate local data from Foursquare Labs Inc. into its mapping application, according to people familiar with the talks, as the company continues to build an arsenal of local data to try to take on Google Inc.,” Jessica E. Lessin and Spencer E. Ante report for The Wall Street Journal.
“The talks, which took place in recent weeks and involve Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, are the latest sign of Apple’s plans to more tightly integrate local services into the iPhone and iPad,” Lessin and Ante report. “The discussions with New York-based Foursquare come as Apple has been talking to a number of companies that collect local data to improve its new mapping product.”
Lessin and Ante report, “Foursquare develops a popular mobile app that helps people find local places and tells their friends when they are at venues like bars and restaurants. It has also amassed business listings, and collects data about the relative popularity of places as well as user-generated tips about them that could help Apple’s mapping service stand out.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Brawndo Drinker” and “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
In my opinion, THE worst part about Apple Maps is the crappy service that provides business listings. I don’t know if it’s Yelp, Localeze, or Factual, but whatever it is, it’s inadequate and outdated. I don’t know if Foursqaure is the answer, but something current, relevant, and crowd-sourced seems like it would be a better option than some crusty “business database”.
Depends on location. So far, Apple Maps has been very, very good to me. (NYS)
Turn by turn is great but satilite images are years old in St Pete/Tampa area.
Apple Maps satellite maps is less than one years old in my area. Maps works great.
Oh dont get me wrong, Ill use apple maps all day. I am happy to have them. I know apple will fix the minor issues soon. I don’t use Satellite really anyhow. I’m just stating that’s the only flaw I see. That and a few things are off a little. Like it says the save-a-lot store is at the dodge-Chrysler-jeep dealership that I work at. When its actually next door to the dealership. The dealership has been there since the 60’s vs the save-a-lot store has been there maybe 10 years. But minor issues.
Many of the business listings in my city (prairies, Canada) are wrong. Like 3 blocks away down the street for no apparent reason -wrong.
Probably because Yelp is not used in Canada. When I heard Yelp was a partner for Apple Maps, I immediately updated my business’ info on the site – I have one of the few businesses with an accurate, up to date, photo-rich business listing.
But it seems nobody here has figured out the importance of their Yelp listing for the hundreds of thousands of mobile shoppers / travelers.
No one will ever be happy with aple maps. there are always alternatives.
Google released their Maps App for iPhone last week and it works very nicely, better than the old one installed on iPhones, actually.
The problem with ever using Apple Maps again is that I used it and it was almost always wrong or slightly off and so I can’t trust it again. I think that’s the major hurdle that will be tough for Apple to overcome.
Thinking back a decade ago – let’s say Rand McNally had an early reputation for making the best maps and then a new, well-financed, heavily advertised newcomer came on the market with their maps. Everyone soon realizes the maps are inaccurate. Would you continue to buy the shiny new company’s version or go back to your trusty old Rand McNally?
The thing is Google has improved upon their trusty old version, making Apple look even worse. Could this map fiasco be a reason investors are backing away from Apple stock? Apple will need at least a year to shake this disaster. If it were just a little-used app that nobody expected much from it would’ve been fine. But they replaced one of the best reasons to have an iPhone, an app that people used every single day, and replaced it with an inferior product.
A college business course on how to ruin a good thing could be written about this and Netflix’s Qwikster.