Apple in talks with Foursquare to acquire mapping data
The Apple Maps fiasco is a horse that’s been beaten to death, and then some, but if recent rumours are to be believed, it looks like Apple is in talks with Foursquare about integrating the popular check-in service’s data into Apple Maps.
If the data merger does indeed take place, Apple Maps would receive a substantial boost in location data, making its mapping features far more accurate than what they are today. The rumours were originally sparked when Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President of Apple made a Foursquare check-in on Twitter, leading many to believe that the two companies may be cooking up some sort of merger.
If the merger does happen, Apple gets a dearth of local data (which it has been lacking) that would significantly boost the ability of Apple Maps to create the correct route for a particular journey.
However, we can’t help but feel that Apple might be coming to party a little late, given that Google’s already released its Google Maps app in the App Store, which not only became the number 1 downloaded app (free) in record time, but also crossed the 10 million download mark within 48 hours.
Even with the merger with Foursquare, Apple will have its work cut out for itself as far as gaining public trust goes. After all, it did result in an unfortunate few getting stranded in the middle of nowhere in Australia.
Source: The Verge