Apple today announced the opening of a new office in Hyderabad that will focus on development of Maps for Apple products, including iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. This investment will accelerate Maps development and create up to 4,000 jobs.
“Apple is focused on making the best products and services in the world and we are thrilled to open this new office in Hyderabad which will focus on Maps development,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “The talent here in the local area is incredible and we are looking forward to expanding our relationships and introducing more universities and partners to our platforms as we scale our operations.”
Apple has been continually updating and adding new features to Maps, including 3D views, the Flyover feature and tools to help customers find convenient places to shop, eat and explore nearby areas. With iOS 9 Apple added Transit, offering a combination of trains, subways, buses and walking, which is already available for more than 300 cities around the world.
The new facility, located on the Waverock campus, will provide a world-class, LEED-certified home for the expanding Maps team.
“We are honored Apple chose Hyderabad as a home for its Maps development office,” said Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, in a statement. “This will create thousands of jobs here and is a testament to our proactive approach, quality infrastructure and the excellent talent base we have in the region.”
“Apple is one of the most innovative companies in the world and we are very proud they chose us to partner with for this important project,” said Anup Jindal, RMSI’s CEO, in a statement. “We are experts in geospatial data and we will be hiring thousands of people from the local area to support this effort.”
Across India, Apple supports over 640,000 iOS app developer jobs and other positions related to the iOS ecosystem.
Source: Apple Inc.
Apple Maps itself is excellent, but there are a lot of issues with anomalies and omissions from the database that it searches to find places. If a significant number of these 4,000 people will be working on improving that database, then it should be hugely beneficial.
Most of the problems that you hear about with Apple Maps are not to do with the maps as such, but more o do with it failing to locate a place that a user searches for. Keeping such a database accurate and up to date is a labour intensive operation and this looks to be a great way to do it.
Spot on. Apple Maps has improved greatly and I use it regularly as my go to maps app. But the performance of Apple Maps search can be spotty and it should be improved in several ways:
1) Improved maps caching for trips. When you temporarily lose connectivity you quickly find out that the map is limited to what is on the screen at the current scale/zoom.It would be nice for AM to maintain a higher resolution map within a set range of your current location. If you set up a trip plan, why not provide an option to cache the entire trip with more detailed levels of maps cached around citie/towns and major interchanges?
2) Quicker, more intuitive access to what I typically need. It ought to be easier to look ahead during a trip to find food and gas and lodging.
3) Improved search, in general. Sometimes it works well. Other times it cannot find something that I know exists at a particular spot
4) Improved implementation of real-time traffic status. Either license and integrate Waze data, or buy the company. Along with that data, why not add a useful real time re-routing function that offers candidate options for detours? That would be especially helpful on trips where you do not typically know if you can use some side roads to get around a slowdown caused by road construction or an accident. I recently faced this problem, jumped onto a side road, and found that the road way closed at a bridge about four miles later, just before the interchange that would have enabled me to get back on the interstate.
5) Segment times and countdown distance/times for waypoints along a trip. An Apple product should not just display a map and show you where you are – it should anticipate the needs of a traveler with minimal guidance and interaction.
Apply the Apple “think different” philosophy to Apple Maps and other Apple apps that are becoming bloated, less reliable, and less intuitive!
All great points, KM!
I think Waze is owned by Google, though, so Apple would have to build its own network for those types of features.
Maybe Apple has hired too many millenials. Despite the Apple U indoctrination (which is voluntary anyway) these young upstarts have their own stubborn view of everything and it shows up in their work. I only think that because (1) the old guard would never use thin fonts for major boulevards, or force the user to zoom in to see the names of nearby avenues, or (2) play hide-and-seek with what once were obvious buttons and menu items, and because (3) blaming Tim Cook for everything is tiresome and unproductive.
IOW, it’s hard to find decent help these days 😬
Interesting. I looked up the location in Hyderabad with Apple Maps and the pin rested on Google India.
“We are honored Apple chose Hyderabad as a home for its Maps development office,” said Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, in a statement. “This will create thousands of jobs here and is a testament to our proactive approach, quality infrastructure and the excellent talent base we have in the region”
So Apple doesn’t set up shop in the US and create jobs here? Apple prefers the pay and benefits that workers in India require? This is not out-sourcing iPhone production to a company based in China, this is a whole new deal. Soon the only US workers for Apple will be Senior Executives and retail workers. Ouch.
@EFApple
There are politics involved with getting the kind of distribution that Apple is looking for in India. India is clearly looking for this level of commitment from Apple before they open their doors for business to Apple. There is a reason Foxconn is setting up shop in India as well.
The fact that Apple is able to get quality talent for a fraction of the cost is just a bonus, but not the driving factor. There are plenty of articles that spell this out. Other large companies such as China, etc. all make similar demands.