Last week, Apple senior vice president Eddy Cuebroadcast his location via Foursquare and Twitter, twice. He might as well have been broadcasting Apple's plans for fixing its troubled mapping service.
Apple is in talks with Foursquare to use the mobile location service's data about local businesses in the maps app built into its smartphones and tablets, the Wall Street Journalreports.
Apple already relies on a host of partners, from TomTom to Waze and Yelp, and has said it has listings for 100 million businesses. But all users saw at the launch of Apple Maps was dodgy directions and warped graphics for major landmarks like the Statue of Liberty.
While Apple has fixed the most notable glitches, the perceived quality of its maps lags far behind Google, which just rolled out a long-awaited version of Google Maps for Apple's mobile devices.
Foursquare would help Apple deliver more relevant results, based on the popularity of local restaurants and other business venues.
Apple faces competition from more than just Google in this effort. Facebook revealed a new service Monday which recommends nearby businesses based on users' location and reviews.
Cue received Foursquare's Newbie badge on December 13, suggesting he is a very recent user of the service, which launched in March 2009.
Until recently, Cue has been primarily responsible for Apple's iTunes Store, App Store, and iCloud email, calendar, and file services. He added responsibility for Maps after Scott Forstall, the executive in charge of it at launch, left Apple.
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
