By Jeremy C. Owens, San Jose Mercury News
The Apple logo is seen on an Apple store in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels, File) (Russel A. Daniels)
Apple's efforts to offer a mapping application that can equal or better Google's leading effort in the field will receive a talent boost, as the maker of iPhones and iPads has acquired two startups with technology that could be used for Apple Maps.
Apple purchased Toronto-based Locationary and New York-based HopStop, the company confirmed to news organizations Friday; calls seeking independent verification were not immediately returned. No purchase price was given, as Apple provided only its typical statement relating to small acquisitions, which reads, ?Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.'
Apple replaced Google Maps as the default mapping application on its mobile devices with its own offering in an operating system refresh that coincided with the release of the iPhone 5 last fall. After consumers loudly complained about Apple Maps providing incorrect or incomplete results, CEO Tim Cook took the extraordinary step of apologizing directly to customers, saying ?We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.'
One of Apple Maps' deficiencies in relation to Google Maps is information relating to public transportation, which is HopStop's specialty. The company's website and app helps users in more than 500 cities find the most efficient service to navigate a route, including walking, biking or transit, and claims to be the top-ranked transit app for Apple and Android devices. The nine-year-old company announced in April that it would begin offering social features that would use information from its mobile users to offer real-time transit information, similar to the social-mapping feature offered by Israeli startup Waze, which Google acquired last month for a reported price of more than $1 billion.
Locationary is a big-data startup, and founder and CEO Grant Ritchie wrote an opinion piece for TechCrunch in the wake of the Apple Maps fiasco last September identifying five changes Apple had to make in the way it aggregated data in order to fix the app. The company has developed an offering dubbed Saturn that ensures business profiles are consistent across platforms, a service that could also be used in Apple Maps to ensure that places detailed on maps have correct information.
Apple's stock price has taken a big hit since its CEO apologized for the failure of its mapping application, which was reportedly a factor in a management shake-up that included the dismissal of software chief Scott Forstall. Since hitting an all-time high of $705.07 on the day the iPhone 5 was released in the United States, shares in the world's most valuable technology company have declined more than 40 percent; Apple stock fell 1.6 percent Friday to close at $424.95.
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