How would purchasing Waze address any of the perceived shortcomings of Apple Maps? And where does Waze currently get it mapping info? I kind of doubt that Waze has data sets that rival Google or Nokia, or even Tom Tom.
By simply driving with the app open on your phone, you passively
contribute traffic and other road data that helps the Waze system
to provide other Waze drivers with the most optimal route to their
destination, including live traffic information. But you can also
take a more active role by reporting on accidents, police traps,
or any other hazards along the way, helping to give other users in
the area a 'heads-up' about what's to come and contributing to the
common good out there on the road.
Some of the Waze community members with a passion for maps also
take an even more active role by editing and updating the Waze
map, itself. Most of the editing work is done on the Waze website,
but some parts, such as the naming of streets, can be done through
the application directly.The bigger question is still how an acquisition of Waze would fill the shortcomings in Apple's Maps, which is somewhat separate from the question of where the data is coming from.
Apple's Maps would benefit from buying Waze because Apple would get access to 1) Waze's accumulated modifications on top of TIGER, 2) Waze's software for collecting and distributing realtime changes to maps and 3) the talent of 80 employees that have deep knowledge of mapping software.
The maps from Nokia or TomTom might be better now, but the problem is they may have very inefficient ways of keeping those maps up to date and distributing the updated map data. For example, most GPS units have static map data which get a bulk update once per year. Whereas Google Maps and Waze can get updated maps in near real time along with live traffic information.
As for why Apple would benefit, I'm afraid I don't agree. Sure, having a few dozen more employees with deep mapping experience would probably be great, but I'm not sure it's the real issue. Nor do I think it likely that the user-provided data would trump the quality of any of the major map players at this point.
If you look at the complaints that people are making, many of them down to public transit, poor proper name matching, and regional map quality. Of those, I doubt Waze will provide any meaningful improvement for Apple. To my knowledge, they don't touch public transit, because that's counter to their target. I seriously doubt they do well with proper name searches (do they even support it?) because their target is the commuter, not the guy looking for the nearest Chipotle. And for regional quality, I'd bet that they're weakest in the same areas that Apple is weak in.
I'm not sure why you think mapping data from Nokia or TomTom would be updated on a yearly schedule. The fact that non-connected GPS devices might be updated on that schedule doesn't mean that their databases are updated on that schedule, or that partners would be limited to updates on that schedule. Nokia and TomTom can, and almost certainly do, update their data constantly, just like Google Maps, and Waze, and undoubtedly Apple as well.
Yup. Japan on Waze: one big undifferentiated blob.
Waze seems to be a car routing product, and car routing certainly isn't Apple's weak point...
All 100 of them?