Apple has made two small acquisitions to fix one of the most embarrassing missteps of Tim Cook’s leadership, its botched launch of maps for the iPhone last September.
The purchases of HopStop, an app for helping people find their way across town using public transport, and Locationary, which provides up-to-date information about the locations of local businesses, will help Apple to address two big deficiencies in Maps: the absence of transit information and out-of-date or inaccurate places.
The deals are also the latest indication that Apple is prepared to look outside its Cupertino campus for skills to help solve internal problems. The Financial Times this week reported a recruitment drive, including proposed acquisitions, for its iWatch project. HopStop is based in New York while Locationary was founded in Toronto.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Apple said, confirming the deals.
Apple is expected to launch new iPhones, including an upgrade to its latest model and a new line of cheaper devices, before the end of the year, alongside the release of iOS 7, billed as the most radical change to its mobile operating system since the smartphone first launched in 2007.
The technology and teams acquired with HopStop and Locationary could yet find themselves applied to those launches, to ensure that Maps does not disappoint customers a second time.
Mr Cook, Apple’s chief executive, had to apologise for the problems with its Maps app and soon after led a reorganisation of its team that saw the departure of Scott Forstall and other managers responsible for Maps. Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of internet software and services, now oversees Maps alongside the App Store, iTunes, Siri and iCloud.
Apple’s latest purchases, which have been put in the low millions of dollars, follow Google’s billion-dollar acquisition of Waze, an Israeli traffic app that tracked its users’ travels and incident submissions to provide warnings about congestion or accidents. Locationary also uses crowdsourcing to ensure its place listings are up to date.
Apple had ditched Google Maps from the iPhone to try to reduce its reliance on the parent of Android, its biggest rival in smartphone platforms. The iPhone maker had said that it would rely on third-party developers to provide transport apps and hoped that customers’ usage of Maps would allow it to gather more precise and accurate data about locations.
These latest acquisitions appear to be an attempt to accelerate those efforts and recognise the continuing popularity of Google Maps, which the search company made available to download as an iPhone app in December 2012.
Apple has made continual improvements, additions and fixes to its Maps app since last September, including thousands of city label placements, better satellite imagery and 3D rendering capabilities, especially in Europe, Japan and China.
However, many remain critical of Apple’s efforts and some complain that notifications of errors sent by customers remain unfixed for months.
“It is surprising how little Apple Maps have improved,” said Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis, in a tweet after news of the deals was broken by Bloomberg and AllThingsD.
As well as technical improvements, HopStop’s intellectual property may also be of value to Apple. In 2011 it was granted a broad patent covering how it gathers data from transit providers, then uses the data to determine the best route for pedestrians, by walking and public transport, when they search for a destination on the app.
Apple’s patent battles returned to the headlines on Friday afternoon when it emerged in court filings that it had met with Samsung several times after it won a significant legal victory against its Korean rival last year. A judgment by the US International Trade Commission revealed that Apple and Samsung met in December last year after months of exchanges about a possible licensing agreement and settlement of their wide-ranging litigation.
A memorandum of understanding was drafted at a meeting in February to take their proposals back to their respective management but no deal was reached.
“On March 22, 2013, Samsung wrote to Apple and asked that it reopen negotiations,” the ITC wrote in its report. “To our knowledge, Apple has not responded to that letter. Samsung asserts that its December 18, 2012 offer, as reflected in its March 22, 2013 letter, remains available to Apple.”
Apple has often argued that Samsung’s proposed licensing terms were unreasonable, demanding too large a royalty from each sale of its devices. However, the ITC said that Samsung was “negotiating in good faith and, to be colloquial, is playing in the same ballpark as Apple”.
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The purchases of HopStop, an app for helping people find their way across town using public transport, and Locationary, which provides up-to-date information about the locations of local businesses, will help Apple to address two big deficiencies in Maps: the absence of transit information and out-of-date or inaccurate places.
The deals are also the latest indication that Apple is prepared to look outside its Cupertino campus for skills to help solve internal problems. The Financial Times this week reported a recruitment drive, including proposed acquisitions, for its iWatch project. HopStop is based in New York while Locationary was founded in Toronto.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Apple said, confirming the deals.
Apple is expected to launch new iPhones, including an upgrade to its latest model and a new line of cheaper devices, before the end of the year, alongside the release of iOS 7, billed as the most radical change to its mobile operating system since the smartphone first launched in 2007.
The technology and teams acquired with HopStop and Locationary could yet find themselves applied to those launches, to ensure that Maps does not disappoint customers a second time.
Mr Cook, Apple’s chief executive, had to apologise for the problems with its Maps app and soon after led a reorganisation of its team that saw the departure of Scott Forstall and other managers responsible for Maps. Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of internet software and services, now oversees Maps alongside the App Store, iTunes, Siri and iCloud.
Apple’s latest purchases, which have been put in the low millions of dollars, follow Google’s billion-dollar acquisition of Waze, an Israeli traffic app that tracked its users’ travels and incident submissions to provide warnings about congestion or accidents. Locationary also uses crowdsourcing to ensure its place listings are up to date.
Apple had ditched Google Maps from the iPhone to try to reduce its reliance on the parent of Android, its biggest rival in smartphone platforms. The iPhone maker had said that it would rely on third-party developers to provide transport apps and hoped that customers’ usage of Maps would allow it to gather more precise and accurate data about locations.
These latest acquisitions appear to be an attempt to accelerate those efforts and recognise the continuing popularity of Google Maps, which the search company made available to download as an iPhone app in December 2012.
Apple has made continual improvements, additions and fixes to its Maps app since last September, including thousands of city label placements, better satellite imagery and 3D rendering capabilities, especially in Europe, Japan and China.
However, many remain critical of Apple’s efforts and some complain that notifications of errors sent by customers remain unfixed for months.
“It is surprising how little Apple Maps have improved,” said Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis, in a tweet after news of the deals was broken by Bloomberg and AllThingsD.
As well as technical improvements, HopStop’s intellectual property may also be of value to Apple. In 2011 it was granted a broad patent covering how it gathers data from transit providers, then uses the data to determine the best route for pedestrians, by walking and public transport, when they search for a destination on the app.
Apple’s patent battles returned to the headlines on Friday afternoon when it emerged in court filings that it had met with Samsung several times after it won a significant legal victory against its Korean rival last year. A judgment by the US International Trade Commission revealed that Apple and Samsung met in December last year after months of exchanges about a possible licensing agreement and settlement of their wide-ranging litigation.
A memorandum of understanding was drafted at a meeting in February to take their proposals back to their respective management but no deal was reached.
“On March 22, 2013, Samsung wrote to Apple and asked that it reopen negotiations,” the ITC wrote in its report. “To our knowledge, Apple has not responded to that letter. Samsung asserts that its December 18, 2012 offer, as reflected in its March 22, 2013 letter, remains available to Apple.”
Apple has often argued that Samsung’s proposed licensing terms were unreasonable, demanding too large a royalty from each sale of its devices. However, the ITC said that Samsung was “negotiating in good faith and, to be colloquial, is playing in the same ballpark as Apple”.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.