“It seems being featured by Apple as a replacement for its Maps application has gone well for startup Waze,” Matthew Lynley blogs for The Wall Street Journal.
“In September, Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the quality of Apple’s maps application and listed Waze as a possible alternative,” Lynley reports. “At the time, Waze said it had about 26 million users. Today it has about 40 million million registered users, said Waze CEO Noam Bardin.”
“Call it the Tim Cook effect. To be sure, the company doesn’t say how many of those registered users are actively using Waze every month, but it’s clear the company has gotten a big boost,” Lynley reports.
Full article with interview with Waze CEO Noam Bardin here.
How do you pronounce “waze” ? my Siri doen’t recognize I have waze as an app. It keeps saying “unable to find ways”.
Any comments?
I tried for half an hour to get Siri to open Waze including spelling it out. Siri just kept messing it up perhaps on purpose.
Perhaps she is Siri-ously lost?
I have found Apple Maps to be excellent! Story way overblown! Just like the old antenna issue! Tim Cook and his overreactions and social engineering appeasement style will be Apple’s downfall. Man I miss Steve Jobs!
Though I prefer Apple’s Maps app, there are definitely STILL problems with it. Just last week Maps directions sent me to an address on the wrong street over a block away from the correct street, so I was late to my appointment. There are other times it has worked perfectly for me and I’m glad to hear that Maps is getting better, but it’s batting average is still not where it needs to be.
I had the same experience with Maps sending me to an address just over a block away. It made no sense to me at all. The name and address were different 6th St versus 4th St. I got the address right from my address book by tapping it.
@313c7ro,
Same for me. The name of the street I was sent to was different than the name of the street address I requested. The right street was a little over a block away, but I had to call my appointment and request directions since I no longer trusted Maps to help me get there. C’mon Apple, I like Maps–fix it!!
It only happened one time but it made me a little distrustful.
You fix it, report the bug.
hey – it happens to me also using Google Maps.
So you wrote up a bug, right? bugreport.apple.com
Actually, the proper place to report a Maps problem is to open Maps, touch the bottom right corner so that the map “lifts” up, and click Report a Problem. I’ve done this probably 10 times and each time the issue is fixed by the next time I use Maps. This goes right to the Maps team at TT and Apple.
No wories. About two years ago, mu Tom Tom GPS took me to the servaice entrance of the Getty Museum in LA ,which is way out of the way, rather than to the visitor parking. Even with 6 sigma, things are right only 99.9999 per cent of the time. Maps are way more compicated and dynamic than industrial processes, so perfection is impossible.
The maps isseu seemed to reperesent the turnining of the tide in terms on bringing anti – aApple diatribes to the likes of CNBS and blog istes.
+1
Agree, Cook – cooked himself on this issue… I lost a bit more respect for him that day… but far more for removing Scott.
No you’re wrong. There was and still is a problem with Apple maps. Apple isn’t perfect. Everybody makes mistakes. Don’t make excuses for them.
still don’t know how it’s a successful business model – no ads anywhere, and no paid upgrades. I love the app, but I hold it losely – expecting the company to go under at any time.
love Apple for responsibly keeping
advertising out of the way of users
for the most part
I don’t understand how this still can be a debacle. I may not be a power user of Maps but I have had nothing but success with it. I’m impressed.
Just a not on the comparison with Google maps that have had years and years to prefect their maps. Back in the days when Google launched their maps, Yahoo maps and some other sits had better maps than Google. But people have shirt memories.
I love auto correct sometimes.
They also have blousy memories
GMaps was an *alternative* to Mapquest and others when it came out. It had the luxury of being beta and sucking a bit at first.
Apple Maps did not. It was a *replacement*, and wasn’t labeled a beta like Siri was. And unlike Safari’s search engine options, you can’t change the iOS default maps app when tapping on an address.
I still get enough bad results from Apple maps (if I get any results at all) that I always double-check with GMaps.
I have Google maps , Navigon , Waze , Apple Maps on my phone and I use Apple maps most often and have found it to be very good .The absence of public transportation information is a drawback .
Interestingly I have found Google Maps to have too many mistakes although streetview can be occasionally useful
Add public transit times to your maps app
It’s easy.
Waze is a great app, for the most part it works pretty will with Maps.
Use maps everyday with no problem.
The whole maps debate is fud.
I wish Maps had a night mode and switched automatically.
I wish Maps would pause audiobooks rather than duck the volume.
“Open the pod…”
“In 250 feet turn right”
“…bay doors, Hal”
is much better than
“Open the pod b…” Garble garble garble “feet”
Had less of a problem with Apple Maps than I did with the method by which it was reported in an overeager tech press (including this POS site), and the knee jerk reaction Apple gave to its own product. I would have told everyone to put it where the sun don’t shine. And, if you couldn’t find it, Maps would show you where to go.
““At the time, Waze said it had about 26 million users. Today it has about 40 million million registered users, said Waze CEO Noam Bardin.”
Really? 40 million million = 40 trillion users. In what universe?
The million parallel universes obviously.
Apple Maps is still appalling in the UK. Looking for addresses in my home town in Scotland I am routinely directed to Idaho in the US, or Australia. I’m sure Idaho is lovely, with very nice people, it’s just many thousands of miles from where I want to be. But hey mistakes happen even in Google Maps. It’s just that I’ve reported the errors and other nonsensical directions to UK locations to Apple dozens of times with precisely zilch effect and the hometown one to TomTom, who corrected it within a couple of days.
Find it difficult to get my head round how poor Apple is on the entire Maps issue.
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