No Deal in Sight for Apple to Acquire Waze

[newyorkone]

Originally Posted by nick_elt

I dont know about them either, so i cant tell if 400mil is too much or cheap. How do you know? i think your post was more stupid than their logo.

I know Waze is stupid because I have common sense. Unlike you. The original story explains what they are so you do know about them, and quite frankly, user generated data for GPS that requires user input is just a bad idea in every way. Drivers texting in speed traps, traffic jams, etc. will be worse than drunk drivers. Not exactly the kind of drivers that you want there to be more and more of, on the road, as this STUPID app gains popularity now that this story has come out.

You can read a good review and summary of why this app is such a bad idea here:

Waze, social-gps, should driving be a game?

"Waze encourages you to be a good social citizen by alerting other drivers of speeding traps, heavy traffic, road hazards, etc. The problem with this is that you become a road hazard if you’re driving and reporting a road hazard simultaneously. Texting while driving has been shown to have a greater impact on an individual than driving drunk."

Lastly, as for their valuation, they aren't even a household name like Instacrap and at least Instacrap was somewhat original. So that's why they aren't worth $750mil or even $400mil for such a poorly conceived app in a grossly over saturated GPS segment.

[newyorkone]

Originally Posted by scy

Hey, just because YOU have never heard of them is more an indicator that you just don't know what's out there... here in So Cal WAZE is the only app that consistently gets it right.. you want a quick way to get from city to city, avoid the 5 and take a toll road, WAZE gives that option.. / it's consistent, reliable.. and pretty amazing... saved me lots of speeding tickets too.. go out of business? fade away? before you criticize why don't you check your facts, compare all the options, and you'll see how WAZE stands out.

So that means you are either behaving like a drunk driver by texting while driving when you submit data to the Waze cloud, or you are encouraging others to do so by utilizing the data that they submit.

There are better ways to achieve the same results in So Cal that you desire without endangering lives. I use TomTom + traffic and it works great in NYC. GPS is just something that is too risky to let crowd-sourced info be the main data feed that it utilizes. Good GPS mapping data is not cheap and its not an easy thing to build up an accurate POI database. Good luck trying to achieve accuracy, safe POI data, and make money using the "free" business model.

They're only hope is to start a bidding war amongst the tech giants. In that sense, I guess they aren't stupid. The app still is though.

[rans0m00]

Unsure exactly how they make there money... But I am assuming it's selling their data that users submit. So traffic patterns etc... Sustainability if waze becomes very popular is very unlikely but currently I think they support their self through the above.

Can't argue about the driver distracted thing. The only thing in have to say is if you have a vehicle mount its not so bad but everyone grabbing their phone to report stuff can be bad. Otherwise it works automatically if you are in traffic or giving you directions(via voice). So guess if you can have some self control then it works the same as the Tom Tom you paid for.

Also I don't have a Tom Tom but I do have a garmin and it still routes everyone to the back of my house trying to take them down a service road which is unpassable in a large vehicle. Waze will take you to the front door and after years garmin and Google will still send you down the wrong road.

[Lil Chillbil]

I agree with the above statement

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Originally Posted by skellener

How is something like Waze worth even close to $400 million???

When Instagram, an unoriginal and incredibly reproducible app, goes for nearly a billion dollars Waze should go for trillions. Waze is easily the best navigation app for people in cities or towns with enough people to help with information. Even when out of a zone with a lot of users it is still a very effective navigation app.

Originally Posted by Michael Scrip

Apple still thinks there are 2 Wal-Marts in Mooresville...

I've reported it a few times already.

It is interesting how inconsistent Apple has been with fixing their maps. On the first day maps came out I reported an issue with the location of my work (it was also wrong on Google Maps and I reported it to Google, too) Apple fixed it by the next day and Google still has yet to fix it. Strange.

Originally Posted by newyorkone

Stupid name (and logo), stupid app, stupid company. I had never even heard of them until this post. There are so many other options for this completely unoriginal app, business.

Even $400 mil. is too much. Apple better not pull a Facebook like Instagram purchase. Apple should completely abandon the idea and then Waze will eventually fade away into nothing and be forgotten when they go out of business. $750 mil.!?! Idiots...

What are you raving about? So what if you haven't heard of Waze. It's possibly the most useful nav app in the store.

Originally Posted by rans0m00

Unsure exactly how they make there money... But I am assuming it's selling their data that users submit. So traffic patterns etc... Sustainability if waze becomes very popular is very unlikely but currently I think they support their self through the above.

Can't argue about the driver distracted thing. The only thing in have to say is if you have a vehicle mount its not so bad but everyone grabbing their phone to report stuff can be bad. Otherwise it works automatically if you are in traffic or giving you directions(via voice). So guess if you can have some self control then it works the same as the Tom Tom you paid for.

Also I don't have a Tom Tom but I do have a garmin and it still routes everyone to the back of my house trying to take them down a service road which is unpassable in a large vehicle. Waze will take you to the front door and after years garmin and Google will still send you down the wrong road.

Maybe if you had actually used the app you would know about the steps they take to prevent distracted driving: voice commands, waving gestures, passenger acknowledgement, etc.

[tsadi]

Originally Posted by haruhiko

Waze is not very useful outside the US.

Wrong. I use Waze in the Manila (Philippines) a lot and it's a life saver.

[rwagoner]

I must be the only one who used and hated Waze. The routing was terribly bad.

Having users report traffic means that only major routes and issues get reported. Which means it may put you right into worse traffic as it routes you around traffic. Switched right back to GPS Drive (Motion X). Have not seen anything better than that yet.

[rans0m00]

Originally Posted by rwagoner

I must be the only one who used and hated Waze. The routing was terribly bad.

Having users report traffic means that only major routes and issues get reported. Which means it may put you right into worse traffic as it routes you around traffic. Switched right back to GPS Drive (Motion X). Have not seen anything better than that yet.

It all depends on how many users and the area managers... If the area is not maintained then it's horrible. Memphis was an area I was in that waze was pretty much worthless.

I have heard really good things about motion X though.

[rjflyn]

Actually the ideal would be WAZE to be bought and ran as a wholly one separately ran entity. In other words it might be owned by Apple but let the WAZE people do what that do best with the bigger resources that would come from the larger parent.

You know how many companies does Buffet own that he personally doesn't run, but his cash more than made bigger and would most likely not exist if not for him.

[Gix1k]

Waze is a good app. I love how it tells me a car is broken down ahead and sure as shet, there's a car sitting there. They should have taken the 400 milly...sure it's profit.

[WhoDaKat]

Originally Posted by samcraig

A billion wasn't on the table. Nor would one person get that 1 billion anyway.

Gee thanks samcraig. I'm glad you were here to explain that to me. Don't be so literal bro. It used to be when someone tossed out the word billion it was taken as tongue in cheek. I guess I'll have to start saying a trillion dollars. I feel like Dr Evil....

Dr Evil: Give me 1 biiiiilion dollars or else
Evil Sidekick: Um, sir, 1 billion dollars isn't that much these days

As for my comment, I was being more general and not speaking exclusively about the Waze offer.

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Originally Posted by The Phazer

There are at least a million errors in London alone.

Fixing a hundred a day means they'll have to spend three years just on one city alone. The numbers of fixes worldwide likely number in the billions.

OMG, I can't quit laughing. At least a million, huh? Sooo, if it will take Apple years to fix these errors, how long did it take you to count to a million errors? lol You can't randomly make up a number and then try to use the math to make your point. Since the million number was made up, your time to fix the problems is also made up!

Thanks though bro, it made me laugh.

[robbysibrahim]

omg is there anything I can do, Apple, to help make this happen??? Please!?

The best social-nav app becoming native would just be wonderful...and...TWO LESS ICONS ON MY PHONE!

[ps45]

Originally Posted by Elijen

I bet over 50% of shares are still owned by the founders and are not for sale. But I might be wrong.

I'll take that bet. It's closer to 30%.

[samcraig]

Well it looks like it's actually Facebook that's courting Waze - in the neighborhood of 800M-1B

http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/09/f...urchase-rumor/

[gto55]

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/09/rep...-mobile-users/
Reports: Facebook Is Buying Social Mapping/Traffic App Waze For Up To $1B To Court Mobile Users