6 ms·

Apple did offer to buy Waze, but Waze politely declined

61 points by derpenxyne 14y ago

seanp2k2 14y ago
Not that it would have made Apple Maps much better; Waze was always getting me lost and sending me down sidestreets to end up at the dead-end residential street behind the shopping center I intended to visit. To their credit, TomTom does this as well sometimes, but in general it's a much better nav app (granted it's like $40 vs. Waze at $0).
paulhauggis 14y ago
I used Waze for awhile. The problem I have with it is that it's just not as accurate as the alternatives. Not only would it get streets wrong, but sometimes lead me in the wrong direction. I got tired of this and switched over to Google maps (ios version). It's much better.
- chadzawistowski 14y ago
  I preferred Google Maps once I returned home for the holidays. Waze seems to specialize in traffic data and rerouting, something which doesn't seem to work all too well in rural areas. While out in California, on the other hand, Waze managed to find a new route into the city which saves me 20 minutes over Google Maps anytime I head that way.
  - sachinag 14y ago
    Ayup. Nothing else does rerouting as well as Waze.
    - eumenides1 14y ago
      Waze doesn't re-route for me at all, because my route is already the most efficient :D I love waze and I participate in reporting. I'm normally not the type of person who would give out my location data readily, but the benefits of waze is really nice.
  - drbawb 14y ago
    I used to love Waze, because of the clever rerouting and the UI was pretty slick for a free GPS app. I'm thinking of switching to Google Maps though because their search is quite frankly _better._ Which doesn't make sense to me, because my understanding is that Waze just aggregates search results from several major sources. {Bing, Google, Yahoo, etc.} Around the holidays: Waze routed me to a store [first result] that had closed and relocated [a few miles down the road]. Google Maps showed the same results, but they were ranked differently: the closed or relocated store was annotated as such, and was ranked at the bottom of the list. I've also had Waze fail to take some addresses as input, for e.g: when the house number has a WEST and SOUTH portion, that other apps can understand with no problems. I almost got lost because of that glitch. I've just had too many problems with the Waze search to continue using it. Which is a real shame, because I love the app itself.
    - cstejerean 14y ago
      One of the nice things about Waze is being able to switch the search engine it uses for locating things. I've used that several times when it's default search couldn't quite find what I was looking for.
      - drbawb 14y ago
        Even using that feature [e.g: to select Google] it doesn't seem to return the same result set that Google's own application does. I'm not sure if this is an issue with Waze itself, or possibly some limitations built in to Google's 3rd-party API. --- Unrelated to that: I've also noticed that Waze is starting to display some advertisements, which really bugs me in a GPS app. If this is how they intend to monetize it, I really don't want to support it. I would gladly pay quite handsomely for the service to get rid of adverts. (I don't even like the idea of billboards to be honest: IMO any distraction from the road that doesn't directly pertain to navigation is borderline unethical.)
ramses0 14y ago
Apple fails at social-interaction. They have no feedback loops, no community involvement. Compare to google where the community-feedback loop is almost a part of the product culture. Waze has social integration (facebook), realtime community reporting (speed), realtime community hazard reports (object on road), community map editing (tweak routes, add roads). I can't believe that Apple is so good at making "beautiful" things but so bad at community engagement (gamecenter, ping, maps, *.mac, etc).
- jpxxx 14y ago
  Quibble: Apple has been collecting realtime traffic data from Apple Maps users since year one or two of iOS.
  - sigzero 14y ago
    That was when Apple Maps was actually Google Maps and using different data.
    - jpxxx 14y ago
      Correct, the tiles were from Google and Google got first cut of the route information. But Apple was the one collecting vectors, and there's no reason to think they were ever signing those over to Google.
      - georgemcbay 14y ago
        I'm sure that even if they weren't explicitly sharing the traffic information with Google then Google was capable of (roughly) inferring the data based on API calls anyway. While there would certainly be some noise there between new tile fetches, you should be able to map out routes and speeds with a high (though not exact) level of confidence, particularly in cases where you're probably the one originally laying out the suggested route.
- roc 14y ago
  Apple's DNA is wired to produce singular, curated experiences. That's damn-near antithetical to writing software that's explicitly inclusive of other input and needs to cater to the broadest audiences possible, to hit the network effect. Nintendo is much the same way. And there's no shortage of examples of artists who turn out phenomenal works but are notoriously difficult to work with and dismissive of criticism or collaborative efforts.
gkoberger 14y ago
Interesting. This doesn't seem like a good fit for me: Apple really just needs better data, yet the accuracy is even worse for Waze than Apple's maps. Plus, most of their product would probably never make it into iOS -- I can't see Apple letting users report police locations, messaging other cars or collecting items. (Side note: just last month, Apple was reportedly in talks with FourSquare: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324907204578186074223787936.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732490720457818...)
- sisk 14y ago
  I have had wonderful accuracy with Waze. In fact, the one instance where I had an issue (was told to turn left on a no left turn), I reported it (a well exposed feature in the app) and it was fixed by the next time I drove by. I think that's the real win with Waze as far as mapping goes (the realtime traffic awareness is the number one feature over all): it's crowd sourced so problems can be reported and will be fixed by community map editors (similar to the Wikipedia model).
jessedhillon 14y ago
I stopped using Waze after December of 2011. They have these powerups that they put all over the virtual road, and you hear a crunching noise as your phone character drives over and eats them. Well, in December they felt it was very important that you know that Waze was going to be dropping Santa hats as well, so they placed a popup blocking the entire screen, which (due to a bug I suppose) could not be dismissed. I nearly missed a flight because I was running late and badly needed directions to LAX, but instead Waze pnly wanted to give me news about Santa hats. Finally I pulled over and pulled up LAX on IOS maps. Prior to that, I used it for probably a year and raved about it to everyone. But annoying things like this crept in and destroyed my enthusiasm. For example, there was an option to have Waze prioritize driving over powerups when computing routes -- who wants that!? And the brevity/frequency settings for the voiceover directions were wanting -- either hear a command three times before you have to turn, or hear a slightly shorter command three times, or get no audible direction. What occurred to me in December was that these guys were spending a lot of time on gamification when there were core UI/UX issues which needed addressing. Fundamentally, you're taking someone who has to get somewhere (in a hurry, perhaps) and making them play a very lame game. But they've raised ~$70M so they have a long time to get it right. Edit: at this time I didn't know how to kill running apps on IOS. I had just gotten my iPhone a month earlier.
- albemuth 14y ago
  Not sure if this was the case back in 2011, but all of the features you mentioned regarding power-ups can be disabled in the settings pane. As to the voice directions, your experience seems very different to mine, maybe it's time to give it another chance.
  - cstejerean 14y ago
    I have the same issues with voice direction. It repeats the same instructions way to frequently, often without even a pause in between. For example, earlier today: "Take exit for XXX. In 500 ft. stay to the right at XXX south. Stay to the right at XXX south".
    - 14y ago
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
debacle 14y ago
> While Waze has an impressive user base (20 million at last count and said to be nearing 30 million), the company has still not found a way to adequately monetize its product, or build a scalable business model to profit from. How many more times do we get to watch this story play out?
- sabat 14y ago
  It's been a successful strategy for many companies, however perilous it might be.
  - jrockway 14y ago
    Which ones? (I'm not ready to call Twitter a success.)
    - hayksaakian 14y ago
      Twitter is so embedded in the worlds culture, I'm hard pressed to believe they won't succeed
      - mbreese 14y ago
        Given how embedded they are, it's troubling that they still haven't figured out how to make money off of it.
- pclark 14y ago
  Can you give me a few examples where this story has not played out with a successful company at the end of it?
ynniv 14y ago
In what world does a company with no monetization strategy turn down a $500M acquisition? Who do they think is going to pay more for them, Yahoo!?
- smackfu 14y ago
  "multiple sources have told us that the company was valued around $200 million in its last funding round, and current investors were aiming for a higher price, somewhere nearing $1 billion."
  - ynniv 14y ago
    I read the article too... that doesn't answer the question of who they think is going to pay that price. Here's a hint: not Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Oracle, Apple, IBM, Nokia, or Facebook... Perhaps they're holding out for Samsung, but that's a bit of a stretch.
    - Me1000 14y ago
      Why do they need to sell? Just because a company doesn't have a (public) monetization strategy doesn't mean it won't come with time. There are other options for successful startups than just selling the company.
      - k-mcgrady 14y ago
        It's going to be difficult to monetize when they are competing against Apple and Google offering free alternatives built into every device they sell.
        bostonpete 14y ago
        I just started using it in order to get the warnings about speed traps, accidents, and road debris. I don't believe the stock android maps/navigation apps gives me any of those things...

61 points by derpenxyne 14y ago

Not that it would have made Apple Maps much better; Waze was always getting me lost and sending me down sidestreets to end up at the dead-end residential street behind the shopping center I intended to visit. To their credit, TomTom does this as well sometimes, but in general it's a much better nav app (granted it's like $40 vs. Waze at $0).

paulhauggis 14y ago

I used Waze for awhile. The problem I have with it is that it's just not as accurate as the alternatives. Not only would it get streets wrong, but sometimes lead me in the wrong direction. I got tired of this and switched over to Google maps (ios version). It's much better.

chadzawistowski 14y ago
I preferred Google Maps once I returned home for the holidays. Waze seems to specialize in traffic data and rerouting, something which doesn't seem to work all too well in rural areas. While out in California, on the other hand, Waze managed to find a new route into the city which saves me 20 minutes over Google Maps anytime I head that way.
- sachinag 14y ago
  Ayup. Nothing else does rerouting as well as Waze.
  - eumenides1 14y ago
    Waze doesn't re-route for me at all, because my route is already the most efficient :D I love waze and I participate in reporting. I'm normally not the type of person who would give out my location data readily, but the benefits of waze is really nice.
- drbawb 14y ago
  I used to love Waze, because of the clever rerouting and the UI was pretty slick for a free GPS app. I'm thinking of switching to Google Maps though because their search is quite frankly _better._ Which doesn't make sense to me, because my understanding is that Waze just aggregates search results from several major sources. {Bing, Google, Yahoo, etc.} Around the holidays: Waze routed me to a store [first result] that had closed and relocated [a few miles down the road]. Google Maps showed the same results, but they were ranked differently: the closed or relocated store was annotated as such, and was ranked at the bottom of the list. I've also had Waze fail to take some addresses as input, for e.g: when the house number has a WEST and SOUTH portion, that other apps can understand with no problems. I almost got lost because of that glitch. I've just had too many problems with the Waze search to continue using it. Which is a real shame, because I love the app itself.
  - cstejerean 14y ago
    One of the nice things about Waze is being able to switch the search engine it uses for locating things. I've used that several times when it's default search couldn't quite find what I was looking for.
    - drbawb 14y ago
      Even using that feature [e.g: to select Google] it doesn't seem to return the same result set that Google's own application does. I'm not sure if this is an issue with Waze itself, or possibly some limitations built in to Google's 3rd-party API. --- Unrelated to that: I've also noticed that Waze is starting to display some advertisements, which really bugs me in a GPS app. If this is how they intend to monetize it, I really don't want to support it. I would gladly pay quite handsomely for the service to get rid of adverts. (I don't even like the idea of billboards to be honest: IMO any distraction from the road that doesn't directly pertain to navigation is borderline unethical.)

ramses0 14y ago

Apple fails at social-interaction. They have no feedback loops, no community involvement. Compare to google where the community-feedback loop is almost a part of the product culture. Waze has social integration (facebook), realtime community reporting (speed), realtime community hazard reports (object on road), community map editing (tweak routes, add roads). I can't believe that Apple is so good at making "beautiful" things but so bad at community engagement (gamecenter, ping, maps, *.mac, etc).

jpxxx 14y ago
Quibble: Apple has been collecting realtime traffic data from Apple Maps users since year one or two of iOS.
- sigzero 14y ago
  That was when Apple Maps was actually Google Maps and using different data.
  - jpxxx 14y ago
    Correct, the tiles were from Google and Google got first cut of the route information. But Apple was the one collecting vectors, and there's no reason to think they were ever signing those over to Google.
    - georgemcbay 14y ago
      I'm sure that even if they weren't explicitly sharing the traffic information with Google then Google was capable of (roughly) inferring the data based on API calls anyway. While there would certainly be some noise there between new tile fetches, you should be able to map out routes and speeds with a high (though not exact) level of confidence, particularly in cases where you're probably the one originally laying out the suggested route.
roc 14y ago
Apple's DNA is wired to produce singular, curated experiences. That's damn-near antithetical to writing software that's explicitly inclusive of other input and needs to cater to the broadest audiences possible, to hit the network effect. Nintendo is much the same way. And there's no shortage of examples of artists who turn out phenomenal works but are notoriously difficult to work with and dismissive of criticism or collaborative efforts.

gkoberger 14y ago

Interesting. This doesn't seem like a good fit for me: Apple really just needs better data, yet the accuracy is even worse for Waze than Apple's maps. Plus, most of their product would probably never make it into iOS -- I can't see Apple letting users report police locations, messaging other cars or collecting items. (Side note: just last month, Apple was reportedly in talks with FourSquare: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324907204578186074223787936.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732490720457818...)

sisk 14y ago
I have had wonderful accuracy with Waze. In fact, the one instance where I had an issue (was told to turn left on a no left turn), I reported it (a well exposed feature in the app) and it was fixed by the next time I drove by. I think that's the real win with Waze as far as mapping goes (the realtime traffic awareness is the number one feature over all): it's crowd sourced so problems can be reported and will be fixed by community map editors (similar to the Wikipedia model).

jessedhillon 14y ago

I stopped using Waze after December of 2011. They have these powerups that they put all over the virtual road, and you hear a crunching noise as your phone character drives over and eats them. Well, in December they felt it was very important that you know that Waze was going to be dropping Santa hats as well, so they placed a popup blocking the entire screen, which (due to a bug I suppose) could not be dismissed. I nearly missed a flight because I was running late and badly needed directions to LAX, but instead Waze pnly wanted to give me news about Santa hats. Finally I pulled over and pulled up LAX on IOS maps. Prior to that, I used it for probably a year and raved about it to everyone. But annoying things like this crept in and destroyed my enthusiasm. For example, there was an option to have Waze prioritize driving over powerups when computing routes -- who wants that!? And the brevity/frequency settings for the voiceover directions were wanting -- either hear a command three times before you have to turn, or hear a slightly shorter command three times, or get no audible direction. What occurred to me in December was that these guys were spending a lot of time on gamification when there were core UI/UX issues which needed addressing. Fundamentally, you're taking someone who has to get somewhere (in a hurry, perhaps) and making them play a very lame game. But they've raised ~$70M so they have a long time to get it right. Edit: at this time I didn't know how to kill running apps on IOS. I had just gotten my iPhone a month earlier.

albemuth 14y ago
Not sure if this was the case back in 2011, but all of the features you mentioned regarding power-ups can be disabled in the settings pane. As to the voice directions, your experience seems very different to mine, maybe it's time to give it another chance.
- cstejerean 14y ago
  I have the same issues with voice direction. It repeats the same instructions way to frequently, often without even a pause in between. For example, earlier today: "Take exit for XXX. In 500 ft. stay to the right at XXX south. Stay to the right at XXX south".
  - 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

debacle 14y ago

> While Waze has an impressive user base (20 million at last count and said to be nearing 30 million), the company has still not found a way to adequately monetize its product, or build a scalable business model to profit from. How many more times do we get to watch this story play out?

sabat 14y ago
It's been a successful strategy for many companies, however perilous it might be.
- jrockway 14y ago
  Which ones? (I'm not ready to call Twitter a success.)
  - hayksaakian 14y ago
    Twitter is so embedded in the worlds culture, I'm hard pressed to believe they won't succeed
    - mbreese 14y ago
      Given how embedded they are, it's troubling that they still haven't figured out how to make money off of it.
pclark 14y ago
Can you give me a few examples where this story has not played out with a successful company at the end of it?

ynniv 14y ago

In what world does a company with no monetization strategy turn down a $500M acquisition? Who do they think is going to pay more for them, Yahoo!?

smackfu 14y ago
"multiple sources have told us that the company was valued around $200 million in its last funding round, and current investors were aiming for a higher price, somewhere nearing $1 billion."
- ynniv 14y ago
  I read the article too... that doesn't answer the question of who they think is going to pay that price. Here's a hint: not Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Oracle, Apple, IBM, Nokia, or Facebook... Perhaps they're holding out for Samsung, but that's a bit of a stretch.
  - Me1000 14y ago
    Why do they need to sell? Just because a company doesn't have a (public) monetization strategy doesn't mean it won't come with time. There are other options for successful startups than just selling the company.
    - k-mcgrady 14y ago
      It's going to be difficult to monetize when they are competing against Apple and Google offering free alternatives built into every device they sell.
      - bostonpete 14y ago
        I just started using it in order to get the warnings about speed traps, accidents, and road debris. I don't believe the stock android maps/navigation apps gives me any of those things...