HopStop, is a leading location-based
service, providing free door-to-door mass transit, walking, biking, and taxi
directions for over 1,000 transit agencies in over 750 cities throughout the
U.S., Canada, Europe, Russia, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. HopStop
pioneered the pedestrian navigation market, and is the #1 ranked transit app in
the Apple App Store for both iPhone and iPad as well as the #1 ranked transit
app for Android in Google Play and the Amazon App Store. . Beyond
just going back to the drawing board, it looks like Apple is bringing in plenty of outside (and
well-known) help to fix its mobile mapping app. Apple agreed to buy online transit-navigation service
HopStop.com Inc., people with knowledge of the deal said, seeking to improve
mapping tools after a rocky debut for its directions software last year. The people asked not to be identified because
the deal isn’t public. AllThingsD reported yesterday that Cupertino,
California-based Apple is purchasing Locationary Inc., a Toronto-based company focused on
business-location maps. New mapping software Apple debuted in September with the
iPhone 5 has been faulted for getting users lost and for its lack of
public-transportation directions. HopStop shows
users in more than 500 cities the fastest way to travel by foot, bike, subway
and car; Locationary deploys real-time data from a variety of sources to help
users find featured businesses. Apple, which touted the map features as a key software
change in the iPhone 5, built its navigation application amid a growing battle
with Google Inc. (GOOG),
which had provided mapping data since the iPhone was introduced in 2007. Apple
built the replacement app in part because it wanted to scale back its
relationship with Google, not because of any product flaws, two people familiar
with Apple’s mapping product said last year. Google unveiled its mapping application for
the iPhone and iPad in December. Google Maps is
the most popular free program in Apple’s App Store. HopStop ranks No. 7 among free navigation tools. HopStop, based in New York, provides
directions for more than 140 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. and six other
countries, according to its website. Google, seeking to seeking to keep rivals from eroding
its lead in mobile-navigation, acquired Waze Inc. last month. The developer,
whose mobile app solicits input from about 50 million users to improve
directions and display traffic and road-hazard details. The acquisitions reflect a widening rift
between the two companies as they court mobile users. After Apple introduced its mapping software
and met with customer complaints, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook apologized for the “frustration” in
September, vowing to improve the program and suggesting alternative apps. Google has been building out its online
mapping software since 2005, using cars and satellites to accumulate data that
helps improve its accuracy and reliability. To catch up, Apple can use location
data collected from customers using its maps to improve the service. Apple’s
map software includes a feedback feature for users to report inaccurate
directions and other bugs.
Apple
hasn't commented publicly on the matter yet, and financial details are unknown.
Unlike some other big names in the Valley , Apple doesn't make a lot of
acquisitions. So when they happen, suffice to say they are much more calculated
and offer a glimpse into the business strategy of one of the most notoriously
private (from a media perspective) companies in the business world. But if
accurate, it gives analysts, the media and end users alike a better idea of
what direction (bad pun intended) the Cupertino company is going with its
mapping strategy. It's an understatement to say that these services would give
a much needed boost to iOS Maps -- let alone put Apple on a better footing to
compete with Google Maps. To recall, Apple Maps presented one of the more
public mishaps in the current Tim Cook era. Arguably the iOS 6 app was rushed
out far before it was ready given the magnitude of reportsabout frequently incorrect directions. The situation became
so messy and infuriated users to the point that it prompted an apology from the
CEO and even nods to other
digital mapping services given front
door space on iTunes. One of the quick fix efforts included hiring a crack team of new developers
last fall, and the app issaid to have improved somewhat since then based on industry reports. We
could see a full turnaround (yes, another bad pun) for Apple Maps on iOS 7 --
possibly thanks to the resources brought in by these reported acquisitions. Apple is beefing up its mapping prowess with
the purchase of Hopstop, a popular city transit application. Apple confirmed the acquisition to ABC News
this afternoon. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time
to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," Apple
spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement provided to ABC News. Hopstop, which has iPhone, Android and Web
applications, provides detailed subway, bus and taxi directions in 600 cities,
including New York City, Philadelphia, Moscow and Paris. Transit directions have been one of the major
missing components fromApple's Maps app, which was released last year to
replace Google Maps in iOS 6 and on the iPhone 5. Google has also been hard at work improving its maps applications. Earlier this
week, the company released new version of its app for the iPhone and iPad,
which included a new "explore" feature for finding points of
interest, as well as new traffic warnings. In June, Google
bought social-traffic app Waze. Google Maps has already incorporated transit
data for hundreds of cities around the world
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