“Apple is going after people with experience working on Google Maps to develop its own product, according to a source with connections on both teams,” Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunch.
“Using recruiters, Apple is pursuing a strategy of luring away Google Maps employees who helped develop the search giant’s product on contract, and many of those individuals seem eager to accept due in part to the opportunity Apple represents to build new product, instead of just doing ‘tedious updates’ on a largely complete platform,” Etherington reports. “Apple is actively looking for more talent to add to its team, according to recent job listings the company has posted. And while there’s a tough road ahead for Apple playing catch-up in this area, my source believes that the possibility of building a platform that truly competes with Google Maps is well within reach for Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Why Apple pulled the plug on Google Maps – September 23, 2012
Apple Maps = Google Maps 2.0 ?
The quest is what does that make the current Google Maps? version 1? or version 3? My question… is why didn’t Apple do this hiring earlier?
Gathering the talent and experience they need will help them close the gap. http://blog.telemapics.com/?p=399
How many times more do you want to post that link. Seriously stfu. Posting the same link again and again without adding anything new is boring….and spamming.
This is the first time I knew of this. Thanks, Thelonious.
First time I’ve seen it too.
I’ve seen it twice, it’s a high quality link and your point while valid is needlessly harsh.
Essentially that post is a job application but Apple may have need of his skill set. I like his approach – tell it like it is and focus on solving the problem.
1. It says everything I want to say, much better than I possibly can. It confirms what people should intuitively know has happened with regard to the maps debacle.
2. It is written by an expert in the field, so far the only expert I’ve seen write anything on the mess.
3. When I post the link, it gets buried under the all the mac zealotry and it is clear from the comments and questions here, few people have read it, as it so succinctly addresses just about every issue concerning iOS 6 Maps.
4. Each time I see another dumb post from some pundit who knows nothing about the science, I’m going to tag it with that link because, as I said before, it should be read by anyone who wants to have an opinion on the subject. Everyone here, in particular you, are laymen speaking out of an emotional response to something that is perceived to be an attack on Apple. While some of that might be true, it is clear from Apple’s reactions that they seem to have been caught off guard by the response to maps… the “lockdown” of the maps team, and this rumor about searching for ex-Google employees.
He would certainly provide Apple with the kind of strategic thinking they need to “navigate” their way out of the current turmoil. On the other hand, one of the first things that has to happen to make a change is to raise awareness – make people understand their is a problem and clearly define that problem so that it can be understood by anyone that could contribute to the solution.
One message that has certainly gotten out is that part of the solution to the inaccuracy is corrective input from the various users to help improve the mapping application, such as that from which Google has benefitted. While I can only speculate, I think that Apple has done a brilliant job of making people aware of the problem and of motivating them to contribute. In a sense, the dissatisfaction of all the end users is something that will motivate many to provide the needed updates and to accept that it will take time to resolve the issue and make the app more competitive.
You mean slavishyy. Copy Google or should i say steal as apple has always done. so its ok for apple to copy..
Why do u waste your time here?
Yes, Crisco, why the fuck are you still here?
Your time would be much better spend pulling your head out of your ass and learning the real facts about Apple the company, vs. spreading lies and BS you know absolutely nothing about.
if apple followed google apple wouldn’t be having starting hiccups. If apple stole Google maps data like google stole iOS then it’ll just be a clone of Google maps.
But Apple unlike Google which shamelessly stole iOS i.p Apple decided to start from the ground up: buying up companies, hiring staff.
Google is a thief but Apple decided to take the high ground and do it right and take the starting up pains.
Fandroids who praise Google and its android partners like Samsung for copying iOS and iPhone and then criticize apple who is having some starting issues because Apple takes the high ground (instead of stealing) are sick.
eventually as seen by the billion dollar lawsuit loss by Samsung the dudes who take the high ground will win.
Wall Street is only interested in results. Honesty doesn’t count. All Wall Street is going to notice is that Apple’s maps are inferior to Google’s maps and Apple shareholders will pay the price. This will be one more reason for WS to push Android as a replacement for iOS and one more reason to undervalue Apple. WS doesn’t care that Android was stolen from Apple. It only knows that Android has a larger market share. That’s it. On Wall Street, the good guys finish last.
although I agree that wall street mistreats apple, apple investors have been winning as well because regardless of the FUD, apple’s earnings have been spectacular and althought the P.E is compressed apple investors have still won big since android.
when iPhone and android came out in 2007-08 aapl was around 100 it’s 700 now.
Goog has been flat.
@Laughing_Boy,
It’s obvious you’ve never even met someone who works on Wall Street, because you don’t have any idea how it works. As someone who actually works on Wall Street, I’ll tell you that Wall Street LOVES the fact that Apple is screwing Google and bringing in house/monetizing the maps functionality. Unless they see a substantial negative effect on new iPhone 5 sales–which clearly isn’t happening–Wall Street couldn’t care less about some blogs whining about Apple’s new maps app.
C’mon, admit it, you’re just one of those OWS kiddies who never met a shower, right?
You mean like Google copied MapQuest?
Google NEVER had an original idea.
Apple haters are really a bunch of funny but clueless idiots.
Seriously… Google copying map quest… Apple didn’t invent the phone or the mp3 player they just made those things much much better… As Google did with online maps… I love apple products and mdn… But seriously when is the hate going to stop…I ask this to all of mdn now… What tech and gadget companies do you like besides apple?
Well… In addition to being a devout Apple fan and owning every type of product they sell and a large proportion of everything they sell, I really like the picture quality of my Samsung PN64D7000 (Plasma TV), but the UI sucks when your used to using Apple products. I also really enjoy the experience using my X-Box 360, a Microsoft first for me, much better than my PS3 or Wii.
And Google Maps, before there was a iPhone even. I’ve always loved maps and was fascinated by my atlases, and national geographic maps when I was a kid. So when Google did Google Maps and Google World I wasted a lot of time just zooming in and out of places all over the world.
Apple is and has been my favorite company due to the quality of their products since my cousin let me ‘spray paint’ a b&w checker pattern using a mouse on her Mac in the mid 80’s, but there are a lot of things they don’t do, and so obviously others out there do them better… Just not many areas that they do something with that isn’t the best out there…. The new Maps is one of them, if not the only one.
Apple is great, although I am not a total fan. Love my IPad and Iphone but still prefer my Windows Desktop. But it does seem like Apple or its future employees will be infringing Google’s Trade Secrets if they went ahead with this. Its not like they recruiting any Google employees, but rather those with specific Maps Experience. if this is the case we are in for another nice legal battle. Also interesting that a large section of the Google Maps team is based in Sydney. I remember something about restraint of Trade not being applicable to cross-border recruitment. Perhaps this is where Apple has found a bit of a loophole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secret
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps
They’re not looking to make a clone of google maps but to give the people an opportunity to build something new and better. It infringes nothing.
GeekJen how do you come up with this stuff? Talk about clueless. You are the poster child!
Chris,
Have you seen the product? In case you haven’t, it’s new and different. It’s no copy. It works for me. Others it has not. It needs to get better. It will get better. Copy, it is not. It has a chance to be much better. Google stole directly from the boardroom. This is not the case here. Take a look and think about.
Overheard from the Apple to ex-Google Maps employees job interview…
“Well, come on pretty baby won’t you walk with me
Come on pretty baby won’t you talk with me
Come on pretty baby give me one more chance
Try and save our romance
Slow down
Baby, now you’re moving way too fast
You gotta gimme little loving
Gimme little loving
Ow, if you want our love to last”
Solid, as was the Beatles’ rendition of that classic
Tried to use the maps today. The sorriest excuse of an app I’ve ever experienced using anybody’s product. They is the screwup that will screw Apple and put everybody else back in the game. Please Google make a dedicated map app for iPhone. This is just ridiculous.
Yep. Apple is doomed.
/s
Yep, another nail in the coffin. No E for Effort; no “nice try”. One strike and yer out. Amateurs need not apply. Guess again, Mister Everything. No more Mister Nice Guy. Garbage In, Garbage Out. One mistake and you’re back to square one. We knew all along you were the great pretender. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. Sayonara, jackass. You coulda been a contender. Adios, pendejos. Another nice mess you’ve gotten us into. A day that will live in infamy. Is there any chance you could, like, give us a freaking break, man? The Master is perturbed. I must say, the situation is not to my liking. May I express my disappointment in the efforts expended thus far? You call this a f******* solution? I am afraid, Watson, that your proposed solution, while imaginative, falls short of the mark.
Thank God for companies like Microsoft, Samsung, and Google to tip the cosmic balance of Karma away from the disruptive influence of Apple and toward the natural order of the Mundane, Reliably Ordinary, Predictable, and Terminally Boring.
lmao. Awesome
Wow!
Well hooray for you. I’ve used it on every trip in the car to test the directions. It’s worked fine every time. It even found my friends house that Google could never locate.
So maybe stop the hyperbole. It’s just app. Put on your big boy pants and grow up.
Indeed! It works for me as well, in Melbourne Australia. More up to date for the freeways than the Garmin (with latest maps) in the car. It uses TomTom data for street navigation so I don’t know why it’s so much worse in Europe.
Fellows, you have gone PC on us! It works for 80% so quit your gripping all of you 20%ers.
Apple users used to not tolerate that kind of comparisons!
Apple should not be allowed to serve only 80% of thier customers. 100% of the customers have brought and paid for thier iThings.
another android fan pretending to be using an iphone
meh.
as one guy who analyzed hundreds of postings for antennagate and compared them to android fansites he found that of the posters he could identify 50% of those criticizing iP4 antennagate also had identical user names to android fans who posted regular hate apple posts. android fans posted regularly about the flaws they found in their non existent iphones.
the antennagate iP4 in reality had a return rate of 1.7% (way lower than many android phones), won the J.D powers poll for customer service from thousands of users (beating out the samsungs, HTCs), had the highest user retentation rates (they will buy another iPhone) and was the best selling smartphone in the world. Sure there were some issues with the antenna just like there are some legit issues with the maps but the whole thing has been blown up way out of proportion by haters. and just like iP4 the new iphone will break all records for sales etc.
I’ve been using the map since Friday and find it to be very good for Oklahoma from Tulsa to Oklahoma City so far. I do think that they need to bring it to the Mac as well to add another way to improve data gaps in it. I know that there are problems outside the U.S. particularly, but this is not a total failure. The new app is beautiful, vector-based which will consume less of the data package, and the turn by turn is great, for my experience. Google failed iOS users by not bringing vector maps to the iPhone while doing so for android devices. Good riddance. If I find a problem, I and millions of iOS users can still use google maps on Safari. But I am very impressed with Apple’s initial foray into the maps world.
I played with maps today on a friends iPhone.
It does not make me want to give up the excellent Android Navigation app from Google but I see some real potential in Apple’s maps app.
Its certainly better than I was expecting for an app that is essentially version 1.0.
Give it time I say. Apple will improve it and Google will release their own version for iOS soon. In the end you’ll have two great mapping applications to choose from so in the long run you can’t lose.
In theory, Apple could build a better map platform than Google if all it takes is a lot of money. However, is Apple really motivated enough to build a better product than Google Maps? It will likely take a couple of years, minimum, to get even near Google Maps. Apple’s product absolutely must have Street View but I can’t see Apple spending money on mapping vehicles all over the globe. Street View is so entertaining to me and I can spend hours looking at the neighborhoods in NYC. Of course, Apple’s maps have to be accurate and up-to-date as new street construction takes place. I don’t expect Apple’s maps to improve overnight, but I’d sure like to see some results in six months from now. Apple should take exactly $1 billion from their cash reserve and put it into some huge map project. That should cover everything necessary except the time factor. And Apple, keep that fancy-ass 3D crap to yourself until all the 2D datasets are in place and accurate.
its not the money, it’s finding people with enough experience with map data and how it should be properly implemented. Apple has had those jobs listings posted on their site for months and months and they still haven’t been able to recruit component enough people. This is probably why they’re now forced to go try and poach googles guys now.
“Apple’s product absolutely must have Street View…”
“Street View is so entertaining to me…”
So, according to you, does Apple maps needs street view because it’s entertaining?
Apple needs a new roadmap not google again.
We used the maps last night for an hour and a half trip and everything was correct.
Apple is hiring the staff now that they should have hired years ago and prevented this embarrassment.
dozens, maybe hundreds of articles saying apple is suffering mightily , some even saying Apple is doomed (“it’s an indication that without Steve Jobs apple cannot produce a good product” etc)
few are saying the more correct fact that Google is the one that is screwed.
1) Apple maps will get better. There are issues but even now many find it runs ok for them, some even like it better. Apple will throw it’s weight behind it because unlike Ping it’s vital to it and it will solve the problems
2) Google makes more money off iOS ads and services (like maps), a LOT more than off android . (two thirds of googles mobile revenue is from iOS, the other one third is from android, symbian, BlackBerries etc COMBINED)
3) Maps are used mostly by mobile people i.e mobile devices so the mobile map user data is valuable. Apple can monetize it’s ads because it can provide user data to advertisers (to target customers). Being cut off huge chunks of mobile data is gonna hurt google. (app and web usage for iOS is much higher than android — many android phones are just flip phone replacements and people don’t use them like smart phones, also many OEMs are thinking due to lawsuits to go Windows Phone which runs bing and android phones in asia run Bidu etc.).
pundits dont get it, flaws or not, Apple maps is one big poke into the heart of Google mobile. Google maps is going to be less valuable to Google.
typo
“Apple can monetize it’s ads..” should be “Google can monetize…”
Apple will get it right. For my occasional usage in Southern Cal (which is all about driving), I much prefer it over Google Maps and the turn-by-turn directions feature is as good as, if not better than, the Garmin app I’ve relied on for that usage. This is Mapsgate and will join Antennagate soon enough.
Typical Apple: Google has a good idea and Apple copies it.
Google is the one the typically copy’s. Apple has innovated far far more than google.
Do not feed the trolls. This is a Apple site… a cool and clean place, they like stay here. I don’t know if there any Droid site…. and I hope just never use Google soon. YouTube = piracy+retards+cats. Google+? What a success. Plastic phones? so classy. Messy, Annoying ads? spying? bullying ads? I hear iPad killer? Where? jez.
iTunes MATCH = 25k songs – $25/year AAC quality
Google Music = Several months to upload poor MP3
Music Store was Apple’s idea… FIRST.
iPod killers, iPhone killers, iPad killers. I know bad is good.
Copy and kill. Google = highway to hell… for ‘free’
You think google had the idea of MAPs first? Roflmfao
Clearly Apple Maps is a new product and comes with some early pains. And maybe, just maybe, it will never compete with Google Maps, and remain an inferior product.
But so what: it’s not like the iPhone is dedicated to do maps and navigation. Last time I looked, it does much more than that.
Plus: people will install on their iPhone another maps and navigation product if it’s superior to Apple’s.
And that’s it. An iPhone with a great maps and navigation system nonetheless.
This being said, I will never bet against Apple to bring their maps tool to the top. Time will tell.
Ok, check this: Still no multi destination trip planning; Still no mailing maps or map links; And now as an extra added bonus, no Exit numbers.
Can we please get serious with iOS maps.
The new maps may work well enough if you do not walk or use mass transit in a city. Since I do, I hesitate to upgrade but would quickly if you could download a Google maps ap. I expect there are others like me.
Apple is great, although I am not a total fan. Love my IPad and Iphone but still prefer my Windows Desktop. But it does seem like Apple or its future employees will be infringing Google’s Trade Secrets if they went ahead with this. Its not like they recruiting any Google employees, but rather those with specific Maps Experience. if this is the case we are in for another nice legal battle. Also interesting that a large section of the Google Maps team is based in Sydney. I remember something about restraint of Trade not being applicable to cross-border recruitment. Perhaps this is where Apple has found a bit of a loophole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secret
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps
You just gonna keep copying and pasting that troll?
Troll? mmm… a bit defensive. Found I pasted where I did want to. Did not see a retract or move option. So pasted again.
However.. I am going to paste this link here at at the bottom again.
Fact: Apple’s iOS 6 maps are not ready for prime time. Why exactly that is the case, I am not privy to, but it remains true. Many here hate any criticism of Apple whatsoever. Will it get better? Of course it will, but for now, it is a step backwards.
Too little. Too late.
For the past year, Apple has offered no new innovation, and this is just one more severe miscalculation where they join the herd of industry copiers. Their once great reputation is nearly destroyed. In another year, Apple will be indistinguishable from the other unimaginative bean counters.
One step forward, two steps back, too many times in a row. To see Apple’s future, just look at Sony.
Instead of yapping about incorrect data, how about we help correct it. Touch the right arrow when you see a pin in the incorrect location, and then touch Report Problem.
I bet with so many users, we can fix this mess in no time.
Maps is one of the most pathetic apps to come out of Apple. The color scheme is terrible. It just looks like shit. There are no color gradations, everything is a uniform green or greenish yellow. Terrible, terrible look & feel. I puke every time I have to look at it.
I rarely used Google Maps on iOS… Always used Waze. Waze still works and so far, Apple Maps has been reliable in my neck of the woods.
Re- Antennagate:
I went on a road trip this weekend on a very familiar route and experienced connectivity/drop out issues on AT&T in the very same places I did with iPhone 4 prior to AT&T and Apple tweaking things to a high level of reliability. The same places that the same trip 1 week before has absolutely perfect reception the whole way. Part of this is on a very busy Interstate corridor.
Not saying there is an antenna problem, but Apple isn’t taking care of business.
For an upgrade to Apple’s new maps- just use the Road Atlas! At least it is accurate…