Major Backlash Looms For Apple's New Maps App

Hugh Pickens writes "Michael DeGusta writes that Apple's new Maps app is the very first item on their list of major new features in iOS 6, but for many iPhone and iPad users around the world Apple's new maps are going to be a major disappointment as the Transit function will be lost in 51 countries, the Traffic function will be lost in 24 countries, and the Street View function will be lost in 41 countries. 'In total, 63 countries with a combined population of 4.5 billion people will be without one or more of these features they previously had in iOS,' writes DeGusta. 'Apple is risking upsetting 65% of the world's population, seemingly without much greater purpose than speeding the removal of their rival Google from iOS. Few consumers care about such battles though, nor should they have to.' The biggest losers will be Brazil, India, Taiwan, and Thailand (population: 1.5 billion) which overnight will go from being countries with every maps feature (transit, traffic, and street view) to countries with none of those features, nor any of the new features, flyover and turn-by-turn directions. Apple's maps are clearly behind in some key areas, but they will presumably continue to improve over time. Google has committed to making their maps available everywhere, so it seems likely Google will release their own iOS maps app soon, as they did with YouTube, which has similarly been removed from iOS 6." But what percentage of people who actually buy iPhones lost these features?

Comments

And they'll still buy the next iPhone

[danomac]

Most of their customers will grumble about it, and guess what? They'll still buy the next iPhone. Apple's marketing really helps them here.

Re:And they'll still buy the next iPhone

[TheRaven64]

They don't just have marketing. They also have products that suck marginally less than their competitors. They also make different bad UI decisions, so once you're used to one usability disaster, moving to the competitor's usability disaster is even harder.

Voluntary upsetment

[drunkle j]

Umm, doesn't this only affect those who voluntarily upgrade to iOS6 or the iPhone5? It surely is annoying, but at least they're not pulling a sony (e.g. upgrade-to-iOS6-or-you-can't-use-apps kind of update).

Re:The biggest losers will be Brazil, India,

[Anonymous Coward]

5% of India is still what, 50 million people? That's a fair bit of money.

Re:Like any of them poor countries can afford Appl

[OffaMyLawn]

I am currently an iPhone user, but never bought into the whole "Apple can do no wrong" aspect of things. It was a functional device that allowed me to do what I wanted with it.

But I'm not going to buy an iPhone 5 when my upgrade comes around in November. I was honestly considering a Lumia, but not if all I'm going to be given the option of (being on Verizon) some lower end model. If they do pick up the 920, then I may seriously consider giving it a purchase.

Otherwise, I'll end up with an S3. I'm not married to any particular type of phone (had the original Moto Droid, with no real complaints) but I do tend to dislike when companies do things that just don't seem to make sense from a consumer standpoint. I am aware they don't want Google anything on their phones anymore, for obvious reasons, but I don't like anything done at the cost of experience. Being petty and spiteful really does not serve others well.

Re:Like any of them poor countries can afford Appl

[Anonymous Coward]

BULLSHIT!

There is NOTHING forcing you to upgrade to iOS6 other than getting access to the new features in iOS6.

You can still connect to iTunes, iCloud, etc.

For fuck's sake, I know we fucking hate all things Apple, but can we stop spreading bullshit?