There are only two mapping companies that could possibly make sense for Apple to buy

“We've seen a great deal of speculation in the past week about Apple buying a company to help it solve its nagging mapping headache. The big rumor, both started and squashed by TechCrunch, was Waze, the crowdsourced mapping and traffic app,” John Koetsier reports for VentureBeat. “The only problem with that theory? Waze would only slow Apple down.”

“At least, according to Skobbler's Marcus Thielking. He's the cofounder of Skobbler, a spinoff from Navigon that sells one of the top mapping solutions in the world: GPS Navigation 2 (US$0.99 for iPhone and iPad). It's got a No. 1 sales ranking in app stores in 20 countries and has sold more than three million copies. It's also based on OpenStreetMap, the crowdsourced ‘Wikipedia of maps,’” Koetsier reports. “‘There are only two companies that could possibly make sense for Apple to buy,’ Thielking said this morning from Europe. ‘There's Garmin, which doesn't use TomTom, on which Apple Maps is built, and there's TomTom itself. TomTom would be my bet.’”

Read more in the full article here.

Apple Maps and the danger of overestimating your company’s strengths

“As everyone now knows, iOS 6's developers replaced Google's Maps application with Apple's proprietary mapping utility, developed through company acquisitions and with help from TomTom,” Liz Larsen reports for Fast Company. “Initial reviews noted the lack of integrated transit directions (a default in Google's Maps), location inaccuracies, missing landmark information, and imperfect (even melted!) 3-D views.”

“While the critical backlash hasn't dented sales of the fifth-generation iPhone, we can apply this misstep to a larger enterprise issue: How should companies evaluate which functions are better outsourced and which should be maintained in-house? These often mission-critical decisions–when made out of haste or hubris–can be enough to put brand reputation and loyalty at stake,” Larsen reports. “When it came time to execute on the strategy of bringing a previously open-sourced application in-house, it would appear that Apple's product development team had neither the time nor skill set to be successful, thus propelling the brand into an unwanted spotlight.”

Larsen reports, “Choosing to bring a new capability in-house is an exercise in honesty and objectivity, in terms of evaluating your own corporate identity and value proposition. And it is a decision that is best executed by taking personal pride (and even impatience) out of the formula. While some strategic moves may seem like a quick way to win a battle, presenting the best offering will ultimately win the war.”

Much more in the full article here.

Related article:
Tim Cook open letter: We fell short with new Maps app; we are extremely sorry – September 28, 2012