The Apple Maps team must be under tremendous pressure. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some dysfunction going on in there too, given the variations in quality (e.g., if the 3D is so bad, why didn't they just cut it and introduce it as a shiny update when it's ready?)
Someone at Apple is probably kicking themselves because they didn't start on this initiative a few years earlier.
I don't know that I buy that. Development efforts have trouble all the time, no doubt even inside Apple. The problem here isn't that maps was late, it's that someone decided to pull the trigger and ship it when it wasn't ready. That's not something that can be put on the development group.
Pulling out the dead guy card again: one generally would assume that Jobs would have been using this thing and playing with it to be sure it was ready. Did Cook? Or if not, whose job was it and why didn't it happen?
Please, quit "pulling out the dead guy card". Ask why iOS 6 Maps shipped, but quit saying SJ wouldn't have allowed it to ship. I doubt you knew Jobs and, even if you did, I doubt you have any clue what he would have done in this situation.
The heart of the issue seems to be that Google and Apple could not agree on licensing terms, which is why Youtube also disappeared. It is impossible for outsiders to say why the deals broke down, but it remains that Apple was left scrambling to provide some kind of solution. The only real alternative to this Maps release would have been to have no Maps app at all.
It seems that Apple painted itself into a corner here.
Apple releases a new iPhone every year and it comes with major-ish OS update. They can't just not ship and wait until it's perfect - there's too much money riding on this upgrade cycle.
At the same time, Apple dropped contract with Google way before iOS 6 was ready.
Since delaying iPhone 5/iOS 6 combo was out of the question and they didn't prepare for the plan B (i.e. shipping Google's maps) their only option was to ship their maps regardless of how shitty they are.
Is the app actually a problem itself? It seems fast, slick and fairly clean to me.
The data on the other hand is pretty terrible but the good thing is that can be cleaned up server side. There is a lot of data to fix though so it will take a considerable time.
> f the 3D is so bad, why didn't they just cut it and introduce it as a shiny update when it's ready?
Who says the 3D is bad? When you're looking in a city that has the 3D models, it's pretty great. If the problem is "not everyone has it" then that's a ridiculous goal. Gotta launch sometime.
Someone at Apple is probably kicking themselves because they didn't start on this initiative a few years earlier.