TomTom Falls After Report Apple Is Building Own Maps Database
A street map is displayed on the touchscreen of a TomTom GO 6100 personal navigation device (PND) at TomTom NV's headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Monday, June 29, 2015.
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg
TomTom NV, a maker of digital mapping technology, fell Friday after the website TechCrunch reported that Apple Inc. plans to rebuild its Maps application for iPhones with its own data, putting the companies’ long-running partnership at risk.
When it launched in 2007, Apple’s iPhone used a Maps application powered by data from Google. Amid its fight over smartphones, Apple dropped Google Maps in 2012 and launched a redesigned Maps app with data primarily provided by Amsterdam, Netherlands-based TomTom and other sources. The app immediately received poor reviews. For the past few years, Apple has been building a custom maps infrastructure, drawing from its network of more than 1 billion iPhones and information collected from vans touring the globe with cameras and high-tech sensors.