There is a sure sign of telling when Apple is in trouble. And the sign is when Apple is trying to fix its problems by spending money and buying other companies. Not long ago, Apple would have preferred to fix the problems rather than buying its way around the problem. But TechCrunch has recently reported that Apple is at an advanced stage of buying Waze for a consideration of $500 million.
Waze is a map service with presence in more than 85 countries. The progress of Waze can be gauged from the fact that it wants Apple to pay $750 million dollar whereas Apple is willing to pay around $500 million, CNET has reported.
If you are not aware of the background of why Apple would want to buy Waze, you may like to know that Apple Maps have had a troubled start. On the other hand, Google Maps have been doing quite well for quite long. Google has been improving Google Maps with ever increasing accuracy of mapping data with the help of users. Google Maps lets its users point out the inaccuracies and Google fixes these inaccuracies which makes Google Maps a reliable service. It is the same bug fixing which Waze is also quite efficient at.
However, if Apple successfully acquires Waze, there are still good chances that internal problems at Apple Maps might stifle the strengths of Waze and Apple might still continue to offer bad maps. In this backdrop, it is always advisable for Apple to first fix its internal issues and streamline its internal processes to improve its mapping service. Buying its way through inefficiencies is not going to help in the long run.
