“Apple’s plan was for their own mapping service to be, if not as good as Google’s, at least good enough that it didn’t make us miss Google’s map data,” John Gruber writes for Daring Fireball.
“I think Apple — where by ‘Apple,’ I mean the company’s collective executive leadership — is seething regarding the way this has played out,” Gruber writes. “Everything from Apple Maps being the butt of jokes to the accolades and joy that have accompanied the release of the new Google Maps iOS app. Seething.”
“Google has lost something valuable, too: its place as the default mapping data provider for iOS,” Gruber writes. “What’s interesting is that this is a case where it’s us, the users, who’ve won. We’ve got two apps with turn-by-turn-navigation and vector map tiles where before we had none. Ideally, yes, Apple Maps would have best-of-breed data and search, but the situation was even further from ideal prior to iOS 6.”
Much more in the full article, including how to use the app without giving Google your data – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tom R.” for the heads up.]
Meh.
Seething? LOL. After decades the Apple strategy is vindicated to such a thorough extent that even in the face of a SNAFU such as Apple maps it still works out in it’s favor.
Apple stared down Google and Google blinked. And with all of Apples loyal fans map will be improving by the minute.
Amazing what self-interest can accomplish, once one is held by the scruff of one’s neck and forcibly been made aware of such a thing.
Seething? I heartily doubt it. The average user isnt going to gonon an expedition for a Maps app, when one id included with their iOS device, and Apple’s Maps WILL BE included with every new device, and in every iOS upgrade. Google’s new Map App is a tremendous improvement over the crap they offered iOS users, but now they have to overcome the default iOS app advantage. Its going to take more than they have offered in this “update” in the meantime, Apple is not going to sitting still.
Apple can continue to push Apple Maps aggressively, because for 5 years Google was the default app, and Apple can claim they acted to overcome Google’s attempt to favor its own platform. A very compelling argument.
Google just shit in their own kitchen.
Google can take their maps, Android and Nexus and shove it up their collective asses. Any true Apple loyalist should treat Google with the same contempt as Samsung! I’m truly tired of hearing people say ” I have been loyal to Apple for years, but I like to have options”. No, the fact is that you may use Apple but you are open to be bought by whomever offers you a new toy. If all of the people who claim to be hardcore Apple stick with them and tell the wannabe’s that we will avoid their products, Apple will be just fine.
I mostly agree with you. The so called long time Apple users who don’t mind picking up an Android device for a particular feature can stay on the Android camp for all I care. These folks don’t mind selling their personal information nor do they mind/care about IP infringements and blatant perjury. Their ethical stance isn’t strong and are gullible for shinier copycats. They deserve to be in the Android hell. I say good riddance.
Totally Agree. No google, msft or samsung crap anywhere near me or my Apple stuff. It’s not just about loyalty but morality and ethics too.
For some of us its not a religion sorry.
these are companies trying to win our business not temples of worship!
I use a Mac and I use Android. The second something better comes along on either front and I’ll quickly move to it.
I’m a fan of technology not any single company.
You may try to trivialise our loyalty as “religious”, while it’s the loyalty that kept an iconic company like Apple afloat during the dark decade. Many of us have our loyalty because, as mentioned above, ethical stance. Steve Jobs understood customer loyalty and never shafted us.
Enjoy your Android. You deserve it.
I agree if it weren’t for the true fans of Apple the company would have been dead eons ago.
I just do not fall in that category of user.
Please don’t confuse loyalty and religion. I claim Christianity as my religion and hold the promises and salvation it grants to me as sacred. I am loyal to Apple products because I believe that they hold a philosophy of offering innovative products, outstanding loyalty to their customers and they create their own products. Great companies need the loyalty of their customers to see them through the ups and downs so that they can stay focused on making unique, finely crafted products. Otherwise they will have to knock out cheap, plastic products every month just to keep an attention deficit customer base happy. The Samsungs, Googles and Microsofts of this world are making money by hanging on Apple’s tit and copying everything they do. It’s up to the consumer to have the ethics. If you are okay with how Google modified Android into into an IOS clone and then whored it out, then run out to Best BUy and get your $159 tablet today. I will stand by the innovator, pay them a premium and send a message that I want quality over quantity.
+1
Beautifully said, wholeheartedly agree. Christianity is my faith; Apple have earned my consumer loyalty with their track record of excellence and quality.
TY for making time to offer such a lucid backdrop that oh so many of us are included within.
Merry Christmas
Why would I use a lesser product just becuase I don’t “like” the company that makes the best? That’s one of the top reasons people buy Android phones. And it’s silly.
If you’ve been with Apple as long as I’ve been – we’re talking Apple //e, Mac512K, MacPlus, and all along the way, and multiple Macs and MacBooks right now — you’ll learn that Apple is just like any human being — Apple can be nice, but Apple can turn on you. Apple has a Steve Jobs streak in its personality. Apple only does things that makes money – and you don’t get to have a $120 billion cash stash without being obsessively shunning things that don’t make money, and if you happen to need some hardware in a area where Apple doesn’t do it, then you, kind sir, can go and take a running jump, and Apple will smile and say they can’t please everyone. The prime example is the removal, 6 years ago, of non-reflective, anti-glare screens from ALL iMacs and ALL desktop Cinema Displays. If you want any anti-glare desktop hardware from Apple, well you can go and weep. If you persist and get non-Apple matte monitors, you are stuck with the less powerful Mac Mini or the hugely expensive Mac Pro which, for non professionals, is over the top. So please don’t talk about loyalty to Apple, since it clearly does not go both ways with Apple. Being loyal to Apple is like being married to a person who’s been divorced over a dozen times – you really don’t know if your hardware preference is going to be the next casualty.
Appropriate insight, MMM.
I believe I read that an anti-Glare feature is back in the new iMacs. Correct?
Tried both for short trio last night. Apple app was much better -quicker, showed name of school at location I was driving to and one option that Google didn’t show. Too bad about the negative publicity. This could have been avoided by the use of the term beta and retention of Google maps until customer experience was exceptional.
One huge advantage for Google Maps is street view. For apps like Zillow or realtor.com who dave switched to Apple Maps for iOS I predict they will go back to GM. Streetview is very useful for them. Also useful for delivery services. No way the very limited 3D overview of a few cities in Apple Maps compare. Google has spent years collecting street view and It is working on going inside buildings as well. GM is ten times more useful than Apple’s error filled fiasco. Get real. Maps looks great, but underneath it is a joke. I am an Apple fan since 1985, but clearly they are poor cartographers.
Oh you worked out that there is a word for….what was it you said last time…..”mapping engineers”, I think. Trying so hard with your spelling too.
You are no Apple fan either.
I am beginning to think that the vast majority of users has no idea how to access Street View. Turn-by-turn navigation? Who needs it? Study a good satellite image and map your own route. The images will give you an idea of large landmarks en route, and Street View will show you the eye-level appearance of each turn — your entire route if time allows — and your destination. This is a killer advantage for Google, a huge asset for travelers. I used Street View every day during a three-week trip to Spain and it was immeasurably more valuable than any GPS. Only when Apple has its own equivalent can it hope to truly compete with a full-spectrum Maps service. Fortunately, Apple saved itself by allowing the Google Maps app. I ordered an iPad mini to complement the five iOS devices in my household.
I’m sure you’re correct; of course, having a flawless memory, or someone sitting next to you with a list of notes as reminders of those landmarks will help a lot.
For those of use who aren’t blessed, as you obviously are, with perfect recall, a good satnav system, giving clear, unambiguous directions on busy, contested roads, is by far and away the best option.
I wish, though, that I was as perfect as you, thryll, my life would be immeasurably improved.
I have emptied Street View in the past, but I found it to be relatively slow and cumbersome. A quick satellite view is more that enough for me to acquire the necessary navigational context when I am traveling to a new area.
If would have been great if AM kicked GM in every way. The fact that Google was forced to deliver a better iOS GM experience and adopt vector-based maps shows that Apple made the right move, even if AM was not quite up to the lofty standards established for Apple.
If Street View is critical to your life, then go ahead and use GM. But it does not appear to be very important to most people based on anecdotal evidence.
“Emptied?” I meant “employed” Street View…
Apple is far from perfect, as its spell correction feature proves time and time again. But I am unapologetically a loyal, if critical, Apple fan. No company is perfect, but Apple seems to make an honest effort to put the customer first. That means a lot to me.
The point you are making would perhaps be taken more seriously without the “Apple fan since 1985” caveat, even if true. It’s boilerplate from page 1 of the Junior Troll’s Handbook.
This is another good point. Both maps apps are available. A fair side-by-side comparison, with eyes wide open, will coax out the truth more readily than weighing 300 blog posts, tweets, personal anecdotes, and television comedy bits.
Having just tested both I really have to question the sanity (or at minimum the integrity) of anyone who says they are equivalent.
Apple maps is far superior, not even close.
And googles mapping data has at least as many errors as Apples. Also on a recent trip up to JFK (had to drop someone off), during rush hour, we had both going and apple’s traffic data was more accurate (WRT where the blocks were) than google’s
Don’t think I am even going too keep the Google maps on on the phone as a second option (too many apps now) as I really don’t see any value (was never a big user of street view, but I can see if you were, you might keep it on your poone for that (only))
I don’t miss the Google maps, and I resent their producing “crippleware” in the first place, just as Microsoft did back in the day.
Why didn’t Apple put a dedicated GPS chip in the new mini-iPad? They could have owned the GPS device category.
LTE/GSM version of mini has GPS and GLONASS. If you have only wifi version, you can get a Garmin blue tooth GPS module to use with all of your non GPS versions of iPads. Garmin GLO™ ($99.00). However, not having cellular access will limit utility. Believe Apple app caches routes planned while attached to wifi while Google Maps does not. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
They did, just like all the other iPads
Only the wireless models have it, just like all the other iPads
And yes I agree, it is very likely they DO own the GPS device category now.
Glad I didn’t even try it. From the sounds of it all my fears of it being quite a crap app from the point of interface is turning out to be true…..and turning me off even more. Tick marks??? Dot dot dot instead of the curl???? Too Droid like for me.
Everything google os off limits for me and my family and my friends if I can help it.
If that was Apple’s plan then Tim Cook didn’t ask enough questions of Scot Forstall to truly handle Maps better and avoid all of this. I do think it was precisely a failure of leadership trying to anticipate issues (did Cook ever even look at Maps himself and test it out or rely at all on exhaustive testing before releasing it?) that created this situation and the buck DOES stop at the CEO so it was right that Cook signed the apology letter instead of Forstall. If Forstall lied or underplayed to Cook about it’s readiness then yeah, fire Forstall. But I guess we’ll never know how it was handled and how much Cook was paying attention.
just received a new Garmin voice activated GPS, don’t ask (it was a gift) and was able to use it (completely updated map as of this week) on a trip to Indy from northern MI.
I had both, my iPhone 5 and the Garmin, running side by side. Wanna take a wild assed stab at which device consistently selected my preferred route? Yes, I tried all the possible choices offered by the Garmin and still Apple maps won the day. Yes, Apple maps. Mind you, the additional features of the Garmin make it a luxury item for traveling and I do like it a great deal.
Apple maps will be fine. Apple will survive, the sun WILL come up tomorrow and……….ah……….oh heck….Winderz 8 is puppy puke. Sorry, that’s all I had.
WWHHAAAaaaaa.. Get over it..
DO SOMETHING TO GET THE PRICE OF THE STOCK BACK UP OR GET OUT OF APPLE YOU SLIME BAGS…
Let’s be clear. Nobody has “won” anything. You get turn-by-turn directions in the Google maps but you can’t access your contact data. Apple iOS 6 maps can access you contact data but can’t give you street view or transit directions. So, thanks to Apple’s incompetence, our overall user experience has been seriously degraded as we now have to use two app to accomplish what we used to be able to do with one. Was SJ right to go “thermonuclear” on Google? Yes. Did Apple totally screw up the transition? Yes again. This is clearly a failure of Apple due to the loss of SJ. Instead of one guy making decisions from his gut, you have the usual corporate nonsense that designs by committee-like Microsoft. So sad to watch Apple lose it’s way as the disaster list grows:
FCPX (despite the updates, pro still derisively refer to it as “iMovie ’12”)
The loss of Save As
The Lighting connector that instantly made thousands of people’s accessories much more difficult if not impossible to use.
And, most recently, the apology-worthy mess that is the iOS 6 maps application
JB, you are hitting some key points. Apple is not executing clearly these days. With Maps, Apple has lost trust with the end-user. They switched away from Google prematurely. They should only have switched once the underlying maps data was validated. Now, you can either go with Apple Maps and its integration to your contacts and Siri and risk getting lost, or go with Google and its lack of integration to your contacts and Siri. Apple thought of Apple first when they moved away from Google and not the customer first, and they are paying a pretty big price for that. And I’m about the biggest Apple fan out there. But it’s clear to me that Apple has some major trust rebuilding to do.
I’m sticking with Apple Maps. It works for me so I don’t need anything else. Thanks Apple!
Perhaps not seething, but definitely more concerned than before iOS google maps was released. I still find Apple maps easier and preferable, but Google has certainly added some great features like review info of destination with just a swipe up from bottom of screen and the best is the choice of routes.
Google Maps has had my parent’s location wrong for three years now. Most delivery trucks get lost. Apple Maps has had it right since day one.
Bonjour de cherif
“Noogle”
John Gruber’s just “assuming” that Apple is seething about Google. He offers no interviews, “anonymous sources,” or anything else. We already know Tim Cook is seething about Apple Maps. No brainer there. But, other than Gruber’s guesses, we (or did I just miss it?) have not heard a thing about Apple seething about Google. If they had been that upset, they wouldn’t have chosen to approve the app in the first place.
Use the link and show me where anything mentions Apple exec’s seething. Remember, MDN writes all the headlines.
Did you read the out-take MDN provided above?
Did you use the link MDN provided?
– Gruber writes “seething” twice.
Why don’t you go Daring Fireball and read the actual story.
The headline seems misleading here.
The quote from Gruber is that the Apple execs are seething at the way that iOS Maps played out. Not seething at Google Maps per se.
The headline makes it seem like Apple is unhappy at Google’s app, and that is not what I take away from the quoted article. They are more unhappy at the state of their own software and the negative reception it has received.
(Yawn) This is soooooooo overblown…. Does anyone think that Apple sold millions of iPhones because of Google Maps??! Or that they wouldn’t sell millions of iPhones without it? I don’t know any smartphone buyer, Apple or Android, who said, “I gotta have that phone…did you see that maps app?” Like Maps has been some major selling point for EITHER platform…much ado about nothing
Maybe you and I are the only chaps who contemplated buying a mobile phone and did not think, Which is the superior mapping app? ‘Cause, y’know, anyone would hardly be using the device as an actual phone so much as a replacement for the tattered, inaccurate map in the glove box. And that had better be damned accurate, lest we find ourselves in a sloth pit in Brisbane. At which point we will broadcast our displeasure and hope for salvation, or at least a cheque, from the likes of Google.
So, not John Gruber is now making up the news?!?!?
“I THINK Apple . . . is seething”
Well, if you can’t get the information you need, make it up!
Precisely.
Reality check, John Gruber doesn’t have an inside source, he just has a feeling. STOP THE PRESSES! Wait, there are no presses any more, just journalism by innuendo. I forgot. Brave new world. Never mind. Doubleplusgood.
How to use the app w/o giving your info to google? Don`t download the mapp. ;-}
Apple Maps accomplished the one thing it needed to do – got Apple out of bed with Google on iOS. Removing GoogleMaps and YouTube from iOS means that Google doesn’t get any proprietary looks at forthcoming OS improvements any faster than other App Developers do. This means it will take that much longer for Google to copy new stuff. Well done Tim Cook. No one at Apple is seething. They are all laughing. A few idiots got lost, some of us actually had to use our web browser to find something from our phones, and now all is well again.