TomTom renews Apple Maps agreement

Find My iPhone (iCloud, Apple Maps tiles 002)

TomTom, an Apple Maps data provider, announced Tuesday renewing its partnership with the iPhone maker “for maps and related information.”

“TomTom has renewed and extended its global agreement with Apple for maps and related information,” wrote the Amsterdam-based company in a short notice on its website. “No further details of the agreement will be provided,” they added.

Shares of the Dutch navigation systems company climbed more than seven percent higher to a near six-year high as investors reacted positively to the news.

According to Reuters, some analysts said the deal may be skewed in Apple’s favor due to “the prestige that accrues to TomTom for working with the U.S. company.”

TomTom has licensed its data to Apple since the company ditched Google Maps in 2012.

The full list of Apple Maps data providers is available here. According to the agreement description at that link, all the data belongs to TomTom.

In addition to TomTom, Apple sources mapping data from a handful of other companies, including DigitalGlobe, TripAdvisor, Waze, Yelp, booking.com and many others.

Be that as it may, the agreement extension comes at an interesting time, when Apple has semi-confirmed buying GPS specialists Coherent Navigation and turned down the offer to buy Nokia’s well-regarded mapping division, HERE.

I’m sure many people will agree that the quality and accuracy of Apple Maps has dramatically improved compared to its 2011 debut, which was marred with inaccurate and ridiculed widely by the press.

Now Apple Maps is actually a product people can trust, not just for admiring three-dimensional imagery or researching distant places, but to actually help them navigate from A to B.

Has that been your experience with Apple Maps, too?

Tell us in comments.

Source: TomTom