While still a teenager, my youngest daughter was determined to take on the role of used car salesperson when we sold our old Chevy Tahoe. Her approach was impeccable: Before letting the prospective buyer so much as touch the car, she gave him a tour of its defects, the dent in the rear left fender, the slight tear in the passenger seat, the fussy rear window control. Only then did she lift the hood to reveal the pristine engine bay. She knew the old rule: Don’t let the customer discover the defects.
Pointing out the limitations of your product is a sign of strength, not weakness. I can’t fathom why Apple execs keep ignoring this simple prescription for a healthy relationship with their customers. Instead, we get tiresome boasting: …Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world…we [make] the best products on earth. This self-promotion violates another rule: Don’t go around telling everyone how good you are in the, uhm…kitchen; let those who have experienced your cookmanship do the bragging for you.
The ridicule that Apple has suffered following the introduction of the Maps application in iOS 6 is largely self-inflicted. The demo was flawless, 2D and 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, spectacular flyovers…but not a word from the stage about the app’s limitations, no self-deprecating wink, no admission that iOS Maps is an infant that needs to learn to crawl before walking, running, and ultimately lapping the frontrunner, Google Maps. Instead, we’re told that Apple’s Maps may be “the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.”
After the polished demo, the released product gets a good drubbing: the Falkland Islands are stripped of roads and towns, bridges and façades are bizarrely rendered, an imaginary airport is discovered in a field near Dublin.
Pageview-driven commenters do the expected. After having slammed the “boring” iPhone 5, they reversed course when preorders exceed previous records, and now they reverse course again when Maps shows a few warts.
Even Joe Nocera, an illustrious NYT writer, joins the chorus with a piece titled Has Apple Peaked? Note the question mark, a tired churnalistic device, the author hedging his bet in case the peak is higher still, lost in the clouds. The piece is worth reading for its clichés, hyperbole, and statements of the obvious: “unmitigated disaster”, “the canary in the coal mine”, and “Jobs isn’t there anymore”, tropes that appear in many Maps reviews.
(The implication that Jobs would have squelched Maps is misguided. I greatly miss Dear Leader but my admiration for his unsurpassed successes doesn’t obscure my recollection of his mistakes. The Cube, antennagate, Exchange For The Rest of Us [a.k.a MobileMe], the capricious skeuomorphic shelves and leather stitches… Both Siri — still far from reliable — and Maps were decisions Jobs made or endorsed.)
The hue and cry moved me to give iOS 6 Maps a try. Mercifully, my iPad updated by itself (or very nearly so) while I was busy untangling family affairs in Palma de Mallorca. A break in the action, I opened the Maps app and found old searches already in memory. The area around my Palma hotel was clean and detailed:
Similarly for my old Paris haunts:
The directions for my trip from the D10 Conference to my home in Palo Alto were accurate, and offered a choice of routes:
Yes, there are flaws. Deep inside rural France, iOS Maps is clearly lacking. Here’s Apple’s impression of the countryside:
…and Google’s:
Still, the problems didn’t seem that bad. Of course, the old YMMV saying applies: Your experience might be much worse than mine.
Re-reading Joe Nocera’s piece, I get the impression that he hasn’t actually tried Maps himself. Nor does he point out that you can still use Google Maps on an iPhone or iPad:
The process is dead-simple: Add maps.google.com as a Web App on your Home Screen and voilà, Google Maps without waiting for Google to come up with a native iOS app, or for Apple to approve it. Or you can try other mapping apps such as Navigon. Actually, I’m surprised to see so few people rejoice at the prospect of a challenger to Google’s de facto maps monopoly.
Not all bloggers have fallen for the “disaster” hysteria. In this Counternotions blog post,”Kontra”, who is also a learned and sardonic Twitterer, sees a measure of common sense and strategy on Apple’s part:
Q: Then why did Apple kick Google Maps off the iOS platform? Wouldn’t Apple have been better off offering Google Maps even while it was building its own map app? Shouldn’t Apple have waited?
A: Waited for what? For Google to strengthen its chokehold on a key iOS service? Apple has recognized the significance of mobile mapping and acquired several mapping companies, IP assets and talent in the last few years. Mapping is indeed one of the hardest of mobile services, involving physical terrestrial and aerial surveying, data acquisition, correction, tile making and layer upon layer of contextual info married to underlying data, all optimized to serve often under trying network conditions. Unfortunately, like dialect recognition or speech synthesis (think Siri), mapping is one of those technologies that can’t be fully incubated in a lab for a few years and unleashed on several hundred million users in more than a 100 countries in a “mature” state. Thousands of reports from individuals around the world, for example, have helped Google correct countless mapping failures over the last half decade. Without this public exposure and help in the field, a mobile mapping solution like Apple’s stands no chance.
And he makes a swipe at the handwringers:
Q: Does Apple have nothing but contempt for its users?
A: Yes, Apple’s evil. When Apple barred Flash from iOS, Flash was the best and only way to play .swf files. Apple’s video alternative, H.264, wasn’t nearly as widely used. Thus Apple’s solution was “inferior” and appeared to be against its own users’ interests. Sheer corporate greed! Trillion words have been written about just how misguided Apple was in denying its users the glory of Flash on iOS. Well, Flash is now dead on mobile. And yet the Earth’s obliquity of the ecliptic is still about 23.4°. We seemed to have survived that one.
For Apple, Maps is a strategic move. The Cupertino company doesn’t want to depend on a competitor for something as important as maps. The road (pardon the pun) will be long and tortuous, and it’s unfortunate that Apple has made the chase that much harder by failing to modulate its self-praise. but think of the number of times the company has been told You Have No Right To Do This…think smartphones, stores, processors, refusing to depend on Adobe’s Flash…
(As I finished writing this note, I found out Philip Ellmer-DeWitt also takes issue with Joe Nocera’s position and bromides in his Apple 2.0 post. And Brian Hall, in his trademark colorful style, also strongly disagrees with the NYT writer.)
Let’s just hope a fully mature Maps won’t take as long as it took to transform MobileMe into iCloud.
Related columns:
- Apple’s $30B Maps Tweet A short week after releasing the iPhone 5, Apple’s CEO publicly apologizes for the Maps fiasco and the company’s website updates its description of the new service. As the digital inspirations blog found out, the unfortunately emphatic description that once read: Designed by Apple from the ground up, Maps gives you turn-by-turn spoken directions, [...]...
- Science Fiction: An Apple-Curated App Store TweetIn an alternate universe, Apple has announced the App Store Guide and Blog. Choice morsels from the PR material follow. “We came to realize that a quarter million apps meant worse than nothing to Apple users”, said Apple’s CEO. “I get confused too! Reviews are often fake, lame, or downright incompetent. PR firms have been [...]...
- The Adobe – Apple Flame War TweetThe short version: Who, in his right mind, expects Steve Jobs to let Adobe (and other) cross-platform application development tools control his (I mean the iPhone OS) future? Cross-platform tools dangle the old “write once, run everywhere” promise. But, by being cross-platform, they don’t use, they erase “uncommon” features. To Apple, this is anathema as [...]...
- War in the Valley: Apple vs. Google TweetIt was long overdue: Eric Schmidt (Google’s CEO) finally resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors. Usually, these resignations are handled in the smoothest of ways: Thanks for the distinguished service and the like. This time, Steve Jobs issued a pointed statement: “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome [...]...
- Why Apple Should Follow Michelin TweetWhat’s the use of offering more than 500,000 wares if customers can’t find their way through the gigantic bazaar? I know, I already harped on about the lack of curation in Apple’s App Store, but that was 16 months ago…when the Store contained a “mere” 250,000 apps. Since then, the iPhone has sold in ever [...]...
79 Comments
There are 16,193 applications in the iPhone App Store when I search for “maps”, many of them free.
Notable among them are mapquest, google earth, Microsoft Bing, and several using Open Street Maps data.
Apple is hardly holding its users hostage to its own mapping software here
IMHO, we’re just seeing the reemergence of the “apple is doomed” meme from the 90s.
As someone recently pointed out, Apple is sourcing the map, POI and GIS data feeds from 2nd tier players, and has a built a 3rd rate poorly cobbled together product using a relatively untested internal Maps team.
One wonders why Apple has chosen this route instead of buying outright a major maps/SatNav/PND outfit like TeleNav or NavTeq(and discarding the Nokia shell in the process), and delivering a more mature product.
Apple seems to be a laggard in the acquisitions game, either for IP, technology or talent, when compared to the likes of Google and Facebook.
your solution to add maps. google . com .. useless … ios blocks if from locating you.
and you should see the ios maps of asia, anywhere that’s not white, in fact … useless
Jean, whatever Apple is paying you, you’ve earned the money!
@Gregorylent You may have disallowed safari on iOS from using tour location. It finds me fine once I click the dialog to allow Google Maps to use my location.
Cheers,
LD
This is the precisely the same trap that Apple dug for itself and stumbled into when it introduced Final Cut Pro X. They left it to users to discover what had been left out and there was a similar firestorm of criticism. That was a contained disaster because the people affected by the lapses in FCP X were a tiny subset of Apple’s customer base. Maps touches us all.
This BS is at the top of techmeme.com right now. How amazing! Techmeme is Apple’s propaganda machine. Apple Maps is a POS, so is Siri, so is pretty much every aspect of iOS, I hope OHA tells Google to not make apps for iOS anymore, at least for as long as Apple thinks they can go around suing Android companies over BS invalid patents all the time, you can be left living in your POS proprietary Apple world and you can be happy about it.
Wow, there sure seems to be a lot of angst about the iPhone 5 from Android users… and deservedly so.
The fact that they are making such a huge uproar over the new Maps app as their reason for hating the iPhone 5, just shows how desperate they are to find something (anything) to bitch about.
But if anyone believes that Google Maps is perfect, and doesn’t have any flaws in it too, they need to wake up.
It’s just as easy to find bizarrely wrong information in Google Maps. See the article with examples on counternotions dot-com.
The difference is that this is version 1.0 for Apple Maps, and Google Maps has had 10 years to sort out those errors (which are still there).
And like many other iOS 6 users, I haven’t yet come across any errors in markers or routing in Apple Maps.
Apple has made a promise to correct any errors as quickly as possible. We haven’t heard a similar promise from Google about its Maps errors.
The most important point not mentioned is that
iphone users are the one that fixed google maps errors via feedback
which google collected. Apple will do the same.
Without the iphone users Google maps were novelty like google earth.
I don’t remember mapquest starting a whisper campaign against google.
Google has their own platform now the time google to move all their services
exclusive to it. Let see how successful google can be doing that.
Apple won’t allow us to set a default maps application, so it must provide a first rate one. Going to a map site is not an option. I have family in Kurstraße 16, Nidda, Germany. Look it up. I’m using Apple’s Find Friends so I can’t just switch.
Apple designed in California they say. And only *for* California. At least now. Apple jumped the shark on this one.
> Let’s just hope a fully mature Maps won’t take as long as it took
> to transform MobileMe into iCloud.
The breadth of problems with Apple’s maps is so large that a hope won’t cut it, I don’t think. There are problems, with labeling, location, lack of detail and incompleteness, chronologically incorrect data, incorrect or distorted imagery. It’s not like doing a database cleanup and re-importing the data set. For an excellent overview of the issues, read this article by cartographer Mike Dobson:
http://blog.telemapics.com/?p=399
I agree wholeheartedly, though, that a some modesty on Apple’s part in June (and a Beta label, too), would’ve gone a long way to minimizing this disaster.
Joe Nocera is a long-time professional anti-Apple propagandist now working for the Microsoft New York Times. He is well known at Apple for several publicized run-ins with Steve Jobs.
I used Google Maps on IOS for traffic, but on IOS 6 maps, traffic information is almost non-existent rendering maps useless for me. I wish I could downgrade.
One of Apple’s motives for turning out their own Maps app is that google for iOS restricted Apple from having turn by turn directions. Apple iOS 6 Maps have turn by turn now. Google allowed this for Android but restricted Apple. So Apple needed to change to stay competitive. The majority of the issues are in 3d / flyover. A novelty not required for navigation. The remote areas will take time, but already Kiev Ukraine is better than google! Google will have to spend more mapping dollars, and the winner is all the consumers!
Thank you, Mr Gassée, for talking about how this negative publicity surrounding iOS Maps is mostly Apple’s own fault. I really wonder if they have no one doing public relations? Given the obvious gaps in information outside the US, anyone at Apple who took the time to consider the reception they’d get after people found problems could certainly predict the mini-firestorm Maps has produced. Is this a calculated move on their part? Did they consider whether or not to label Maps a beta, or to at least give some indication it was a work in progress — or did they do the math and determine that the fallout was the price they’d have to pay to introduce Maps in the way they wanted? OR, and this is the only possibility that gives me pause about post-Jobs Apple, were they in fact surprised at the attention and reception Maps has gotten? If so, hopefully someone there learns the utility of “controlling your message” in the future.
It’s going to be fine, everybody. Don’t get your panties in a wad.
I tried it – Apple Maps is a gorgeous app. (I remember the days when Google Map led me the wrong path, still does often, and no one complained.)
Joe Nocera reveled himself as a cheap troll mascarading in a respectable journalists’s clothing.
Whenever I see charbax’s comments pop up, I know with certainty that Apple is on the right path.
Apple’s new maps app would be good if it were accurate. It’s a total disaster where I live; streets that don’t connect to where they should, or at all, incorrect or totally missing street names, streets shown as connecting to others when they really don’t, streets that do exist appearing in the wrong place with names of nearby streets, and a HUGE lake totally missing from the map. Google’s maps are not perfect, but they are at least much more 99% more reliable than Apple’s new app. Clearly Apple rushed this thing out to get way away from Google, but it looks like a poor alpha version of a project in progress, not a polished, accurate app. I’ll use Google’s web app for the moment, and keep giving LOTS of feedback to Apple until their app gets updated correctly. The world is a very, very big place. Apple seems to have underestimated the complexity of the task.
Much ado about nothing.
If you have a 4 or 4S you did not have turn-by turn with G maps on iOS5, no loss there. If you got an iPhone 5 and maps is a deal breaker, then return it and get an Android. If you upgraded your 4 or 4S to iOS6 and need Google map accuracy and features then just open it in Safari.
This whole thing is just media induced frenzy to generate page views. It’s one app for crying out loud!
Mapping is tough! Apple has their work cut out for them.
I’ve written what I think is an answer to one of their several problems. Am I being naive?
http://sharonsharalike.com/how-apple-can-solve-its-street-view-problem/
-Sharon
With no Jobs to offer critique or say “No” (aka Gatekeeper) Apple strongly deserves Mapgate to have happened just to remind them they are not perfect. I bet this will teach them to be extra diligent when they release new products.
Apple has an unique opp to quickly make its maps solution an excellent solution by enabling hard core users to fix issues by themselves. It would not be possible to catch Google by following its footsteps. You got to be different..somehow…
Having said that I don’t think its maps solution is that bad. Actually, I think this is pretty good maps solution.
Regards, Emerson
PS: great lucid article JLG!
Does anyone bother to remember how bad Google maps were when they started up?
Every time I read one of these stories or comments praising or defending Apple’s new iOS 6 map, I have to wonder whether the writer is an idiot or was paid off by Apple or owns Apple stock and is trying to pump up the stock price. There cannot be another explanation. The new map app is full of inaccuracies, its traffic feature is extremely weak, it lacks Street View, and it lacks important details such as………wait for it………ROADS.
Maybe I’m missing something, but is there some sort of easy way to send feedback to Apple for errors in Maps? Does one have to open a new radar for every darned map data correction, or is Apple giving us a better way?
As an experiment, I used the new Maps app with turn-by-turn all weekend on routine chores in and around Austin all weekend. Although I didn’t always agree with the routing, the app never led me astray. I also checked a number of maps of foreign and domestic locations I’m very familiar with and found the maps very accurate. There were some mistakes (sites on the wrong side of the street, missing Starbucks locations, etc.), but there were always mistakes in Google Maps, too, and more than a few really hilarious ones. Maps’ 3D satellite view is interesting — and funny with the wavy bridges — but it’s mostly an entertainment: I’d never navigate by pictures of buildings taken from space.
I have no relationship with Apple, but I think they’ve done a decent job on this app. It might be premature, but it is a long, long way from the useless junk app people are complaining about.
I see Antennagate leaders have escaped from their Android asylim?
@Ted T, you can do it within the maps app. Zoom in on an area withis incorrect, press the page fold on the lower right (where you change from satellite/hybrid views) and you’ll see a ‘report a problem’ link. It’ll ask you for the nature of the problem, and the give you a field where you can define exactly what the problem is.
Agreed, Apple could have been more humble about the maps intro but you’re probably thinking of a different company. Apple has had time and resources beyond compare to get this right. It’s a debacle and their excuse that maps are hard is pitiful.
I tried Apple maps over the weekend – comparing it with Google maps while enroute. The maps themselves proved surprisenly to be more accurate, though the app itself often had me in a field instead of on the road.
Other than street view which was at times invaluable, the greatest loss is in location based data. It doesn’t recognise that their are 6 starbucks in my neighbourhood as an example. It instead directs me to China. The Chinese romanization that they are using is atrocious as well.
Definitely a step back but not the death knell that people are reporting.
I was going to hate on Apple Maps…until I tried to use it. Unfortunately it worked perfectly.
In Hawaii with my wife on vacation. With a rental car, no GPS, and first time here, it was a good chance to try out Maps. Turn by turn worked great and the graphic display of my route was easy to read on my iPad, even when concentrating on heavy traffic or mountain roads. Voice directions were well timed. Using Maps in Honolulu identified restaurants and points of interest, with the exception of the battleship Missouri. Had to go to Bing for that. From what I read, that’s the kind of thing that improves with usage.
@JLG wrote, “The demo was flawless…but not a word from the stage about the app’s limitations…”.
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The closest I can remember Jobs being apologetic at an intro was when he said that they thought there might be room for a third platform (the iPad). Other than that, the pattern might be to occasionally slip a low-profile acknowledgement that Apple might be working on an update.
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Someplace inside Cupertino, a commitment was made as to how Apple would compete with the reputed 7000 Googlers working on cartographic services. I am concerned that many past Apple projects — AppleWorks is the first I recall identifying — aimed for about 50% functionality of Windows services, enough to squash the market for third-party profitability and leave Apple with kiddie-car apps. On iOS, installing third-party apps is even more difficult due to weak integration tools, so Apple will have to either aim for a superb level of map services, or soon introduce a full suite of inter-app links into the OS.
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I will be *VERY* surprised to see either in the next year or so.
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So the question will become how aggressive and smart Apple will be about using the constant flow of location information that iPhones send to Cupertino. That alone will be great for Waze-style real-time driving-time tracking, and should be good for picking up temporary outages. Correlating that information with Siri requests (especially, Open Table but Yelp & others, too) and subsequent “same location for 30 minutes” data should help fine-tune restaurant and other landmark locations.
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It’s easy to imagine many other algorithmic approaches that Google must already use, but that Apple might be able to do at least as well. The question is how quickly Apple will blend the different elements of a first-class service, and for them to show their intentions.
Finally, a very well written about this topic. Very professional, just read the bio of the author.
I think Apple is starting to suffer what Microsoft suffered years ago. The volume of iOS devices is now getting out of hands, and the visionary leader is gone. That is the only explanation of this and other issues (antenna mishap, Siri failure, etc). At this stage a company, which is the most valuable, and has huge amount of cash, shouldn’t be releasing modules that are not finished. Obviously, the money can’t buy everything.
“cookmanship”
Nice substitute for the word you wanted.
Facts are: Apple maps are Not as good as the product they replaced.
Yes, it will take time for Apple maps to surpass google maps, but why does the average Apple consumer with an iPhone have to wait for it?
I use Apple products. I don’t love Apple. So don’t change my perfectly well working phone for a map that sucks, just so you can get the hang of the “map business”.
The selection of a featureless part of rural France is a little odd, when you could have highlighted much more significant and important examples. Just one, to illustrate: The main distribution road in Reading, a key centre of the UK information technology industry, is misidentified rather oddly as “Tour of Berkshire”. It’s not just affecting French cornfields
Just to be clear about the turn-by-turn feature: This is not Apple’s, they bought TomTom’s product which, like Google’s maps, has been in development for many years and has proved itself in the market. It could well be the part of the maps app that Apple has least had to develop.
One problem with “Actually, I’m surprised to see so few people rejoice at the prospect of a challenger to Google’s de facto maps monopoly.”
Apple is the one (and only) who sets default apps on iOS and OSX, so you can install alternative maps, browsers, mail clients, etc., but you can never ever escape Apple crap because only one app, their own, will open when you click a link. Rest is a mess of copy/paste and home-open-home-open.
That’s why an Apple cock up is a much bigger issue then a Google Android one. Users can replace/correct Google mistakes on Android, Apple mistakes are must use defaults.
Hmmm. Looked up my home address (that happens to be in a semi-rural area in the western US), and the app located it almost instantly, and correctly.b
On the east coast, used it a couple of times for directions, and it worked well.
I rarely used the old maps app because it required ongoing manual input while driving; I stayed with my dedicated Garmin GPS (which has tried to steer me wrong in more than a few instances).
I’m now considering buying a windshield mount for my 4S to give the new app a serious test side by side w/ the Garmin. I use GPS at least several times per week, and so far like the Map app’s interface better than the Garmin’s.
Well done! Ithink it is very easy to shout at Apple and it may have been to early to brilng out the Apple maps and swipe the google-maps from our phone.
The more interesting question is what the plans are for Apple. Are they going to bring out a service like “Offmaps”, so I don’t have to pay for data traffic when I’m travelling, are they going to have crowd-sourced information on the maps, are they planning to integrate trip-advisor info in their maps?
The google maps are partly faulty as well and full of nonsense…don’t you forget this!
I think there is a little explanation why Apple started to name places in Poland in Chinese. Or pointing to streets in other cities (even if closer) rather than in the same city.
Check for yourself http://tiny.cc/x704kw
If that is done in cooperation with TomTom, Apple must have gotten 10 years old input – my TomTom works with 100% coverage in Poland.
“Let’s just hope a fully mature Maps won’t take as long as it took to transform MobileMe into iCloud.”
Unfortunately, maps is a much bigger task than Siri or iCloud or anything Apple has tried so far in software.
It will take years (a decade?) of refinement for Apple to reach the level they had before iOS 6, *IF* they start to invest what is needed in people, infrastructure and resources. They are simply not investing enough to build quality, reliable maps in a world scale. They are building a collage of data from third parties, and the result is a mess. At this pace, our only option for the next few years will be to use third party apps.
The real shame is that Apple won’t let us change the default maps app. We are tied to crap maps every time someone send us an email with an address or we take coordinates from an app that relies on their maps.
Apple Maps could only be defended by a true fanboy who has drank the Kool-Aid!!
This is a totally immature, inferior product. Apple will more that likely NEVER have Google’s Street View. Beyond that, sourcing from TomTom seemed wise, but sourcing from Yelp? You cannot do a local search of any quality on Apple Maps compared to what we have with Google Maps
False airports? Gas stations on top of office building? Screwy looking photos and out of focus photos. No, Apple Maps cannot even do Google’s satellite imaging. It doesn’t support transit or walking connections. There are no traffic updates.
One really has to out of touch to promote Apple Maps as a consumer worthy product. It is not just “rough around the edges”, it is a disaster.
The thing that gets me is that nobody seems to realize that Google Maps for iPhone was/is crippleware, it doesn’t have Turn-By-Turn Navigation, unlike the Android version. For me, that made GM useless, if not downright dangerous.
My wife and I just did a 1000 mile (round trip) drive recently, and we each had to play ‘Voice-Navigator’ because GM is impossible to read/use by the driver. I wonder how many accidents have been caused by some poor distracted iPhone user/driver peering at his tiny screen trying to figure out where he’s going.
OK, Apple Maps is alpha-ware, and it’s missing features people want. But Google Maps has been around since at least 2005. (see ) Thousands of people (including me) have sent corrections and feedback to Google over the years. And Google has 7100 staff involved, and spent million$ to get where it it.
It’s going to take time, and more before Apple Maps gets close to matching, feature for feature, Google Maps. At least you won’t drive into a tree in the meantime. (And if you do, be sure to send in that correction…
I searched for a location on Apple’s map that I previously searched for an received flawlessly on Google Maps. Apple couldn’t find the location.
That was all I needed to know its garbage. It doesn’t matter how pretty the screen is now if it can find the tough locations!!!
I think the reality distortion field is wearing off and people are waking up…apple has egg on it’s face from this one and the mess will take quite a while to mop up. did you notice that the people who were saying there were only minor issues were american? it is malfunctioning at an exponential rate in the rest of the world. if apple wants to gain market share and expand outside of the us, this is not the way to do it. a huge misstep on the part of a company that was so use to executing releases in a near flawless manner.
JLG, I didn’t know who Joe Nocera was until I read this blog post of yours today. In the past I have generally liked the NYT and felt they had some great journalists, but I can’t help but wonder if the NYT is struggling to survive in a much changed world (chalk full of blogs, tweets, Facebook posts etc.) and as such if its editors are asking its authors (like Joe Nocera, Andrew Revkin et al) to do whatever it takes to try and steal eyeballs and attention from other sources of “news”? No offense, but I opted not to read Joe Nocera’s article that you pointed to (even though you suggested it was worth reading) because I just don’t see the point. I would rather simply download iOS 6 on my iPhone or iPad and try it out for myself and make my own analysis. Note that more cynical people might suggest that Joe Nocera wrote his article asking if Apple has peaked, possibly with the hopes that he could get enough eyeballs who would in turn dump some of their AAPL stock (with Joe Nocera having previously shorted the stock)? So perhaps the question of the day should be “Has Joe Nocera and the NYT Staff Recently Shorted AAPL?”
This issue may have bee forced on Apple by Google, but that doesn’t change the fact that Apple decided to release a product (Maps) that wasn’t ready for prime time. Like Siri, however, Apple had an annual product schedule to meet, and it was either ship it now or wait another year.
See: Hate Maps? Blame Apple’s Shrink Wrap Product Cycles
http://www.isights.org/2012/09/apples-shrink-wrapped-product-cycles.html
@MMatz, you could have been writing for me, except that I live in a rural area of Australia.
Perfect location for me and all but one of my friends – who is on a farm in an even more rural area in Australia. And my Garmin GPS can’t find that, either. Oh, and neither can Google Maps.
While I have some sympathy with some aspects of the original article, I think there’s a couple of points people miss.
A critical component of a COMPUTER maps app is search. Not just search for an address but generic searches like “wine bar” that take account of ones location and other preferences etc and also more complex searches So for Apple to succeed in this area they are going to have to get into the search business, or rely on a 3rd party which will lead either to a flop or similar issues they have not liking google’s success.
Regarding “flash is dead for mobile” – I assume that refers to apps developed specifically for mobile. But 90% of the content I consume on my iPad is on web sites as opposed to apps, and very many web sites stil use flash. Even where some sites have apps available they are often too limited compared to the full site.
I guess it depends which end of the telescope one looks down – is the iPad a large phone ( not in my case it’s wifi only!!) or a small computer.
I have a sense that Maps is a different class of problem for Apple compared to previous issues where the strategy is have users wait for things to improve. Google is far ahead and Apple may never catch up.
Luckily I have a “solution” -not upgrading to iOS 6 until Google gets an app into app store.
The true bottom line at Apple is they are run by probably the best brand marketing people the world has ever seen, but what they need is product marketing to go listen to their customers (and non-customers). Sure they have an awesome fanboy base that will never consider anything else, but they should be very careful not to get too complacent with this group and the far greater number of regular users.
The application problems that Apple are grappling with are essentially data-related – iTunes, Siri, Maps being the prominent ones. Over the past 10 plus years Google has become a master of data. Without knowing enough about Apple’s internal organization, it would help to separate the application software groups and to be on a different product release schedule from the hardware/OS cycle. Significant investment in the applications group including rapid acquisitions of talent and technology would be mandatory. In a very short time, Apple has to build a mini-Google (without the web search) that can also become a master of data The alternative will be to cede data control to Google and possibly others.
C’mon Apple, when you are the best, we expect the best!
Another Aussie country user liking the new maps, google maps is useless off the tar here. Lookup baroona road, Michelago Australia in both Googlemaps and openmaps.org/iOS 6. Googlemaps shows none of the smaller roads. The openmaps are much more comprehensive and can be improved by anyone, can’t say that about Google.
@Michael Drips “Apple will more that [sic] likely NEVER have Google’s Street View.”
Apple with its $100B in the bank can not only produce its own street view, they can do it rapidly. The question will Tim Cook making the decision to do it, not some mysterious lack of resources preventing them from doing it. Unlike many technological problems where blindly flinging resources at them can be counterproductive, this is one easily solvable by brute force: just hire a huge number of drivers and photographers, lease a large fleet of cars and go to it. And, you already have a map of every imaginable privacy faux pas to avoid, courtesy of Google’s ineptitude (or malice if you don’t consider Google inept).
@Ted T
You’re right. And FWIW here’s my take on how they can jump-start it:
http://sharonsharalike.com/how-apple-can-solve-its-street-view-problem/
I got a chance to use the turn-by-turn directions in iOS6 yesterday and it worked flawlessly, YMMV. Most of the issues with mapping are data related. Either there is erroneous data or not enough of it to describe a location well. This will improve over time just as Google Maps did. I remember when Google Maps had these issues…seems many do not.
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Excuse me english readers, I’ll comment in french because I’ve to be fast. Know that I globally agree with this note above.
Bien d’accord avec ce billet mesuré qui évite le sensationnel pour pointer l’importance et les enjeux de maîtriser sa propre solution de cartographie dans l’industrie du mobile.
Pour ma part j’ai aussi fait quelques expériences au petit niveau de mon quartier. J’étais d’abord déçu, sans doute parce qu’on s’habitue à un graphisme, une interface, celle de Google et qu’on est perdu lorsqu’on en change. Ensuite j’ai constaté que cette nouvelle application n’était pas si mauvaise, du moins pour ce qui est des plans car les photos aériennes étaient objectivement de moins bonne qualité.
D’un graphisme agréable, les cartes de Plans ont l’avantage d’être vectorielles, d’un affichage plus progressif au zoom alors qu’on sent bien GoogleMaps recharger un nouveau niveau de bitmap, les itinéraires et la navigation d’un lieu à un autre sont plutôt mieux faits que dans GoogleMaps… Dans mon quartier : trois grossières erreurs de noms de rues et places chez Apple mais aussi deux chez Google, moins pénalisantes. Seule OpenStreetMap est pertinente sur ces noms de lieux. Enfin pour ce qui est points d’intérêt, on en trouve chez Plans absents de chez GoogleMaps et réciproquement ce qui est du aux indications recueillies auprès des utilisateurs dans Maps ou Yelp pour Apple.
À mon avis Apple a posé les bases d’un outil qui ne peut que s’améliorer mais surtout a fait le choix de technologies d’affichages qui lui permettront au moins d’égaler Google, ceci sans copier servilement. Bien sûr il n’y avait pas de quoi user de tous les superlatifs entendus à l’occasion de la présentation suscitant ainsi une attente qui ne pouvait qu’être déçue.
They now removed the part touting maps as “the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.”: http://idaily.de/apple/apple-entfernt-maps-superlative-von-eigener-website/
i just got a brand new iPhone 4 with a vodafone plan, and upon using the Apple Maps app, and selecting a route when driving, the phone didn’t speak to me the directions and go to the next step of the directions. I have gone to settings in Apple maps and changed the voice to loud and stuff like that. How can i get the app to work?
@Helen
Not the best place for support, but it depends on your country. Here is Apple’s feature list by country: http://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/
And if you really have a 4, then turn by turn is not supported: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5457?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Helen, sorry to say there’s nothing you can do to get Maps to talk to you short of trading in your phone. You won’t hear a voice on iPhone 4. The app uses Siri to speak the directions, so you’ll need a 4s or a 5.
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Apple did the right thing to prevent Google’s chokehold on maps? What about the customer? You have lost a Customer due to this attitude and I an happy with my switch with android; Google maps on Android is amazing and flawless don’t care if I don’t have fly view. I am still using my iPad but will not return to the iPhone unless Apple comes up with something really astonishing.
I have been using Tom Tom for10 years and their map data is quite accurate. how Apple screwed up their maps with such excellent data is beyond me. What’s the use of amazing views if its not accurate?
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