
Apple Apologizes for Its Maps Problem - KeepTalking
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/apple-apologizes-for-its-maps-problem/262994/
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bobx11
Until they fix it by partnering with a real mapping company, they didn't
recognize the depth of the problem.

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rimantas
So you don't regard TomTom as real mapping company? Apple has partnership with
them and a dozen others. They also aquired Placebase, Poly9 and C3.

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gbadman
This is a radical change from how we might have imagined Steve Jobs dealing
with this situation.

I can imagine a scenario in which Steve spins the maps snafu so that the
customers end up apologizing to him.

"In Steve Job's Apple, the customer is always wrong."

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rmrfrmrf
So you don't find it admirable that Steve stands by his products?

Honestly, I think if he were still healthy and running the company, something
like this would not have happened in the first place.

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lmm
I found it disturbing how willing the (vocal portion of the) apple fanbase
seemed to be to say up is down and black is white if he told them to. One day
PPC is much faster than x86, the next it doesn't matter. One day a phone
doesn't need to run programs because everything is on the web, the next
everything should be an app. Maybe it's just the ones who disagreed stayed
quiet, but the overall effect was very cultish.

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markshepard
Apology can be accepted if they fast track google's map application to at
least mitigate this mess. I am glad that I didn't update my iphone to ios6.
The wife isn't so happy that I update her phone!

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pohl
Google says they're not yet working on such an app.

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korussian
They could trivially bring Google Maps from iOS5 to iOS6... if Apple wanted
them to.

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kyleslattery
Why do you say that? Google didn't make the the Maps app in previous versions
of iOS, Apple did—they just used Google's data.

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ajays
I can't say for sure what Jobs would have done, but you can bet that Jobs
would have known about Maps' limitations on Day 1, and he would have addressed
the issue right away instead of waiting for 2 weeks like Tim Cook.

Remember: Jobs used the products extensively before they were launched. If Tim
had done so, he would have seen the deficiencies in Maps, instead of just
relying on his underlings saying "it'll be OK".

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seiji
Does anyone think they don't realize the maps are subpar? The problem is, they
can't get better data without having millions of users interact with it daily.
Their only option was to do the startup-y approach and launch not-perfect then
keep iterating. In another year nobody (except for the extreme nerdophiles)
will remember apple maps being disadequate.

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spinchange
>In another year nobody (except for the extreme nerdophiles) will remember
apple maps being disadequate.

I think if it gets the average user lost or late even once or twice, they will
remember and not trust it. It will also have given people who decided to buy
an Andorid or other phone instead of the iPhone 5 justification for their
mobile platform choice/change.

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tocomment
How do users interacting with the map app make it better? Are you supposed to
input addresses of businesses and apple stores that?

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jwoldan
There is a "Report Problem" feature where users can enter corrections or note
problems. As far as simply using the app, I'm not sure either- anyone have
additional insight?

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mvkel
You expect this kind of apology from a Web startup (Tumblr has posts similar
to this every few months), but not from Apple.

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zhtway
Map is OK for me. It is just only the beginning. When Google Map was launched,
we didn't see all the features. The only problem with iOS6 was viewing Unicode
Language in Mail App. It is really frustrating.

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psychotik
That isn't the only problem. It's the only problem _you_ care about.

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bking
If Jobs were there, they wouldn't have release the phone with maps. What they
should have done is put both maps and google maps on at the same time and have
a switch off date for google.

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r00fus
You don't understand Jobs - this solution would have been a cluster and really
hamstrung the new iOS maps app. Apple is not afraid to release a new version
that is a downgrade - check out iMovie '08 or even FCP X.

Your suggestion sounds more like a solution that Google or Microsoft would do
- they don't care so much about creating UI confusion for the customer as much
as giving them choice (simpler move, as that abrogates the vendor having to
make the call).

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cgayle
May be it is a sign ...like vista for windows....

