Followup to the map fiasco

I read a post on Apple.com where the CEO just apologised for the map fiasco:

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

Interesting to say the least.

I did not expect to hear him suggesting that upset iPhone owners try other mapping applications such as the web version of Google Maps.

Why did Apple ditich Google maps?

Why did Apple ditich Google maps?

I like my iPhone.  I like Google Maps.  I don’t like the fact that they dumped my map app in iOS6 and gave me a replacement I didn’t ask for.  Now, maybe I will learn to like it over time, but that has not happened yet.

Why did they do it?

I read an article this morning linked to from a facebook post  The real issue about Apple maps which claims the following:

The key thing in the maps situation is what this move says about Apple and the kind of company it has become.

As Roger Kay points out on Forbes:

Does Apple care that its naked self interest is showing? Not at all, near as I can tell. Apple has always had disdain for what others think, even — no, especially — customers.

However, for a potential customer on the cusp of deciding whether to buy an Apple or an Android phone, this blatantly dishonorable move — to take away from consumers something that they liked and put in its place a home-grown but inferior substitute — is likely to push them definitively into the Google camp.

But I don’t buy that explanation.  I think this “review” is pretty biased. Yes the maps issue needs to be dealt with and improved.

Sometimes companies have to make decisions that are business based, not driven by customers, it happens.

But I think this guy goes overboard and makes it sound like every decision Apple makes is that way, which I think is wrong.

I am a firm believer in the design aspects of apple and they spend a lot of effort with end users making sure the products work the way people need, and then they just work so well you don’t notice them.

 

I read an alternate theory as well this morning, that I gives the correct answer:

Despite having one more year to the contract,  It turns out the answer is turn-by-turn voice navigation.

It wasn’t a feature in the original Apple-Google licensing agreement, so Apple went back to Google to renegotiate what has become a top-tier feature on Android.

Apple wanted it.  In return, Google wanted increased branding in the maps app and Apple refused)

Or else they required Apple to integrate Lattitude (Google’s FourSquare competitor), to which Apple refused as well.

As a result Apple was forced to seek other sources in order to obtain this feature.

This sounds a lot more plausable to me, so I am picking that answer.

iPhone5 gets a thumbs up from Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports, the influential reviewers’ group that blasted the iPhone 4 for a faulty antenna, on Friday gave Apple Inc’s latest smartphone a thumbs-up despite echoing widespread complaints about its patchy mapping service.

In a review for Reuters, Edwin Chan wrote:

The organization, which in 2010 withheld its recommendation for the iPhone because of spotty reception when the gadget was held in a certain way, said laboratory tests confirmed that the new iPhone 5 ranked among the best smartphones but its mapping function clearly fell short.

Apple’s latest iPhone, sporting a larger 4-inch screen and 4G capability, drew scathing reviews for glaring errors in a new, self-designed mapping service. Chief Executive Tim Cook apologized last week and directed users to rival services run by Google Inc and others.

“Despite the widespread criticism it has received, Apple’s new Maps app… is competent enough, even if it falls short of what’s available for free on many other phones,” reviewer Mike Gikas wrote on the group’s website on Friday.

“As Apple has recently apologized and promised to fix these and other map glitches, we expect the Map app to improve in time,” he wrote

And Mike Gikas went on to say:

“Now that our auto experts have completed their tests, including some carried out some days after the launch, they describe the app as relatively streamlined, and concluded that it generally provides clear guidance, including voice and on-screen directions,” Gikas wrote.

So, it is not all bad news from Apple.  Having said that, I am hearing rumours that there may details about a camera problem emerging…   more on that soon.