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Apple Introduces New App Store Section Devoted to Maps Alternatives

posted on Sep 28th 2012 at 12:16pm by Alex Jordan

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Earlier today Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the the lackluster Maps app that is bundled with iOS 6. Apple moved away from Google’s mapping service in favor of their own in-house solution. This new service has come under criticism for it’s inaccuracies, and for just being kinda bad.

To help rectify this situation, at least for the time being, Apple has rolled out a new feature section of the App Store, which is devoted to alternative map services. Apps from Waze, Mapquest, Garmin, Bing and Motion X are some of the services being highlighted here.

This is what I love about Apple. They tried something different, and at least for now, it’s not working out. So, like a responsible company, they are trying to rectify the situation with their customers. Yes, Apple still had a year left on their contract with Google, and yes they should have waited until the service was ready, but they didn’t, and now they are dealing with the criticism.

  • Mat Pancha

    Generally I’d agree that this is corporate responsibliity but sorry – this wasn’t.

    The responsible approach would be to put google maps back on.
    Letting egos battle as they are (and I mean Apple and Google) they should have just not released Apple Maps. I don’t believe that they were surprised that the map results are spotty.

    • Marvin Nakajima

      Agreed.. It is not as if they don’t have the ‘older’ Google Maps app they could push to the iPhones immediately.

  • jhrogersii

    It just isn’t that simple. Apple would have to pay what I’m sure would be a much higher fee to re-license with Google, and let them continue to make money off of Apple, while still having key features blocked. That has been an untenable position for Apple for years. Their learning curve sucks, but it’s reality. There is no going back.

    As for them knowing how bad parts of the maps were, that is actually debatable. Did you hear anyone in the press complaining about Apple Maps during the beta? It wasn’t anything like what you are hearing now. Maybe they weren’t using them, or maybe they just mailed in their impressions without real testing. I used the beta for three months, and never had trouble, and I’m still not having any. But I realize that many others are.

    That notwithstanding, the developer beta group just wasn’t big enough to find the problems, assuming they were really even out there using the app like I was. Also, since Apple is an American company, I don’t think it is a surprise that there are fewer issues with the US maps, and much bigger problems in many foreign countries. They should have had an army out there checking the mapping and POI info worldwide during the beta period, but they obviously didn’t. THAT was their biggest failure. If they tested with a small group, based here in the US, I can see how they could have been lulled into a false sense of security. The app itself works great. The Siri integration works great. According to many user reports (not reactionary tech press or linkbaiters), the map data is solid in a lot of US cities. So, it would be very easy for a small testing group to pass off on the app as good when there is really a ton more checking that is really necessary.

    I’m not giving Apple a pass, by the way. They should have hired the people and done the checking themselves, in advance. I’m just saying that I can understand how this may have been more of a blindside to them, than an intentional shafting of users.