That's a clever idea. Apple absolutely makes use of Open Source, but only when it makes strategic sense, not out of idealism. (Examples: BSD->OSX, khtml->WebKit, LLVM.) In this case Apple needs a way to massively upgrade the quality of their data-set (they still have fundamental errors right in San Francisco! presumably Cupertino near 1 Infinite Loop is sorted by now). They do not want to be in the business of cultivating a gigantic geographic database, so aligning themselves with the many others out there who would like access too a Google Maps quality db is quite clever. They would have to think carefully about how to present this, to make it clear the data is not theirs, in case there are any horrendous gaffes in it.

And this is exactly the point: ownership, as Scully suggests, gets you little but more non-core specialties to manage. Let someone else make stuff happen, then contract with them to make what particular stuff you need.

Owning that data doesn't help. Owning all the tangents unrelated to Apple doesn't help (in-car GPS devices, other unhelpful-to-Apple services). Lock-in doesn't help, as Apple can if need be switch vendors on short notice, vs dumping lots of cash into something that might not work after all.

Focus on the core. Contract out what's not your specialty.