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Apple is rumored to be in talks with location based services provider Foursquare, negotiations that could allow the tech giant to purchase locations based... Apple Attempting To Purchase Foursquare Location Data

Apple is rumored to be in talks with location based services provider Foursquare, negotiations that could allow the tech giant to purchase locations based check-in data from Foursquare Labs. If the purchase is successful Apple will gain access to valuable data which could be applied to various apps in future releases of iOS and OS X devices.

According to Electronista the talks are being headed up by Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue.

Apple is in desperate need of location based information to help it more accurately build a capable Apple Maps application. Apple has come under fire over the last two months because of an iOS 6 mapping platform that often provides wrong venue information along with many other issues.

Foursquare

The Apple platform isn’t exactly lacking in location based data, the company already pulls data from Yelp, Waze and other small scale national and local providers. According to Apple the company already has listings for more than 100 million businesses around the world. If that claim is correct Apple actually has more listings than Google Maps.

This is hardly the first time an Apple-Foursquare negotiation rumor has come to light, in 2010 Cue posted a check-in which led some people to believe he was negotiating with Foursquare or at least testing the company’s use of data points.

Eddy Cue has taken over talks and much of iOS’ direction after the company forced out former senior leader Scott Forstall.

Purchasing data from Foursquare could prove critical for Apple’s strategy. While other location based services exist none have managed to collect the millions of users and business attention captured by the Foursquare platform.

Apple Attempting To Purchase Foursquare Location Data

Even if Apple manages to purchase Foursquare data it still needs to properly implement that data within its own systems.

Do you think Foursquare data will help Apple Maps and other software that requires location based information?

[Image via Moore Media 75]