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Why Apple Replaced iOS Maps
tlhIngan writes "So why did Apple decide to ditch the (working) iOS maps app with one based on their own data (despite having one more year to the contract)? It turns out to be turn-by-turn voice navigation. It wasn't a feature in the original Apple-Google licensing agreement, so Apple went back to Google to renegotiate what has become a top-tier feature on Android. Apple wanted it. In return, Google wanted increased branding in the maps app (Apple refused) or to integrate Latitude (Google's FourSquare competitor), to which Apple refused as well. As a result Apple was forced to seek other sources in order to obtain this feature." Eventually, iOS users who don't want to wait for Apple-Google parity will be able to download a native version of Google's maps (rather than a hacked version), but that could be a ways off.
Hey there Google. Remember when I fucked your boy Samsung? Yeah? You do? I'm fucking him right now as we speak. So now that that's out of the way I want to know -- and feel free to say "no" to this -- if I can get better maps shit from you? What? I can't? Wait, don't tell me this is about me fucking your boy Samsung and uploading it to YouTube. Oh come on, don't be like that! Listen, you can fuck one of my guy's ... um ... Microsoft. I've been doing a lot with Microsoft lately, you want to fuck them? Yeah, I know he's bald and fat but still he ... Okay. Okay fine. Well, I know where I can get other maps. You got that?! I don't need you, I don't need anybody. Goodbye!
Right... Google wanted their branding on a mature mapping and navigation feature that worked, while Apple decided instead to have their branding all over a piece of crap that doesn't work...
Apple passed on the "bad" option, and instead chose the "terrible" option. Yay Apple! What's worse is that this has really taken the shine off Apple (pardon the pun), as even fanbois are asking what happened to Apple's SINGLE selling point, making products that are highly polished and "just work".
If Apple fixes their maps and navigation, and doesn't make any more stupid mistakes in the near future, it might just be forgotten, but if the situation gets worse, or if they make some other major mistake while people still have this one in the back of their minds, Apple's image could really be hurt, with sales taking a big hit.
What's worse about all this is simply the fact that there are numerous other providers of maps and navigation products for smartphones. Mapquest's version is already free for iOS, so Apple would have been able to preinstall theirs for free, or nearly so. Other providers would have charged a small fee to provide the entire service, and given Apple full control over whatever branding they wanted.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Look, whatever, the problem here is we users with a significant investment in the apple garden are fucked even if we get a google maps app because its not going to link to the native apps. If i have an address in my adressbook, apple is not going to let me open the direction in the google maps app with one tap. Of course the fuck not. They will send me to their ugly ass bitch fucking botched maps app that will take years to work anyware but the states and the UK and that really is fucking us up.
I didnt hate them. I bought into them like a lamb in the butcher house and im getting fucked and then slaughtered and then eaten.
Hey, at least i got fucked.
NO SIG