What Apple did in response to all of the negative press around Apple Maps? They didn’t give up, they got to work, kept at it for years, and are still working hard today!
Apple Maps first launched in iOS 6 to much excitement. Previously, Google Maps had powered the iPhone maps experience, but the relationship between Apple and Google became strained as Google held critical features of the mapping experience from the iPhone. If you remember back to that period, Google Maps on the iPhone didn’t even have built-in turn-by-turn directions. Apple began the process of replacing Google Maps with Apple Maps and unveiled its work during the WWDC 2012 keynote.
Unless you are too young, you’ll remember that the Apple Maps launch wasn’t great. It was so bad that Tim Cook had to apologize to customers for the poor experience. While I enjoyed the visual experience of Apple Maps over Google Maps, the initial mapping data (licensed from TomTom) wasn’t nearly as accurate as Google’s data.
It even ultimately led to a massive executive shakeup at Apple. Do you know what Apple did in response to all of the negative press around Apple Maps? They went to work on making it better. They’ve made it better year after year. They’ve invested in the design. They’ve added new features. They brought it to the Mac. They brought it to Apple Watch (which is excellent for walking around a new city). They built out Maps Connect so that businesses could manage their data. They even started creating their own mapping data. We learned back in 2018 that Apple was rebuilding Maps from the ground up.
Apple has shown persistence… Google’s product strategy has often been to throw a lot of things at the wall to see what sticks and kill the rest (see Google Buzz, Wave, Google+, etc.). If Google had launched a mapping product in 2012 with the same problems as Apple, they would have canned the project within a year.
MacDailyNews Take: We don’t call Google “Our Lady of Transitory Endeavor” for nothin’!
Apple’s persistence on this project highlights the importance of owning accurate mapping data and being independent when it comes to apps that are considered mission critical, this goes which goes far beyond the Maps app into things like autonomous driving, AR, VR, and beyond.
Let’s see some marked bike paths/lanes and something similar to Google Maps Street View, and then I’ll give Apple some props. I do enjoy Apple Maps Flyover Tours but I wish there were more of them to watch. Apple Maps is definitely improving but oddly enough, around 90% of Long Island doesn’t show any 3D buildings on Apple Maps. It must be an oversight and hopefully Apple will get everything straightened out and maybe one day exceed Google Maps, however unlikely that may be.
Mapping equipment must be more improved than when Google started so I would think Apple could easily get up to speed if they wanted to. Apple ought to have its own satellites to do global mapping or at least pay to have it done.
“Let’s see some something similar to Google Maps Street View, and then I’ll give Apple some props. ”
Time for some props. iOS has a street view competitor that reviewers say surpasses google’s
The data continues to be out of date
Where is street view?
Apple Maps continue to fall further and further behind Google – I try my best to avoid everything Google but Apple is just not putting forth the effort regarding maps.
Oh and Google Streetview is so wonderful? The view of my house is 10 years old, and that’s not uncommon. Apple has a long way to go, but directions are often much better – and Google cares more about gimmicks than accuracy.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Apple Maps continues to struggle with basic address mapping in major US cities. Their current pace of improvement suggests their data/features will never be current worldwide.
I wish that Google Maps would quit spying on peiple and then quit selling that soy data to the NSA and to its other spy partners.
Let’s see Maps finally get the name of the village I live in right. I have asked for a correction many, many times over many, many years. Google fixed their map about the time Apple Maps came out. I am not a Google fan, but, it seems, if you don’t live in a densely populated area, forget about any attention from Apple’s Maps developers to fix problems – zip, nada, none.
Competition is a wonderful thing!
My one hope is that each Interstate exit/entrance will be identified on the map.