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Apple CEO Tim Cook Apologizes For Maps App, Recommends Alternatives
TheBoat writes "Tim Cook has apologized for the company's Maps app in iOS 6. 'We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.' Cook said the company is continuing to work on the app, but recommended several alternatives in the meantime: apps from Bing, MapQuest, and Waze, or the map websites of Google and Nokia."
This is unusual for Apple, but not unprecedented. Steve Jobs acknowledged reception issues with the iPhone 4 in 2010, but he wasn't quite so contrite about it.
Steve Jobs would have never apologized. He woudl've given it just the right spin that everyone would feel contrite over making jokes at Apple's expense. The next release would be perfect, as Steve would have demanded, and the kerfuffle would be consigned to largely forgotten history.
Tim Cook goofed.
He'd just say you were trying to navigate wrong.
In an effort to figure out how innacurate the data in my area is I did the following:
- Fired up Xcode
- Determined that Apple Maps uses the CLGeocoder Class by peeking at the iPhone's debug console in Xcode while doing live searches in Apple Maps
- Scraped an official list of towns and cities in the province of Ontario from the provincial governments website.
- Coded up something quick in Xcode to get the results of a couple thousand searches. Searches always included the province name to be more specific.
- Ran a quick analysis of the results - not perfect but enough to get a perspective on the matter.
This is what I found:
- 2028 cities and towns searched
- 688 are not even on the map! Error Code 8
- 551 are clearly incorrect (wrong country, street names that are similar to town names etc.)
- 389 were close but not good enough (for example turn-by-turn might send you off a bridge but you'll get rescued close to where you want to be)
- Only about 400 results were actually correct.
Actual results data here and methodology here for those interested: http://www.mtonic.com/applemaps/
(It's not perfect but gives you an idea of how bad it really is in Ontario Canada anyways)
He would have just told us all that we are using the maps wrong, and we'd all apologize to him.
I thought the whole No Google Maps on iOS was a plan, didn't they use their app for 5 minutes, and realize the HUGE outcry when they removed it? Further, due to the massive amounts of money (which apple has in spades) and time (which apple doesn't have at this point) what can they hope to do to fix it? And why didn't they pull the plug before it got to release state? Somebody really dropped the ball, or lied out of their ass during the status meetings. I'm wondering when the firings will start.
Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave. It sounds like Mr. Cook failed to learn from Mr. Job's demand for perfection before release. I guess this could be like iPhone v1 not having the copy and paste feature at product launch. Eventually, I wonder if people will get sick of dealing with this kind of attitude from Apple? I did - a long time ago.
Steve Jobs never would have apologized. While he was certainly one to recognize errors and correct them expeditiously, he'd never own up to it in public. His sometimes boisterous show of unwillingness to compromise is partly what has created Apple's entire image as a "no compromise" company.
Tim Cook is certainly a different guy, with a different approach. I feel he has somehow cheapened the iGadgets with this move - first by releasing a product that never should have made it through validation, and second by apologizing for it in public.
Ha I knew Apple would blame then end user for everything and spin it as just another fea... wait what?
This is actually quite a dramatic about face from the usual way Apple deals with problems. Where's the blame, then the spin, and instead of an apology I was expecting Tim Cook holding up a competitor's product going "see it has problems too!"
I'm impressed.
not ready the apprentice is
more than just fancy presentations he must learn
much too soon master has left
I want an apology for the fact that they've decided my 2.5 year old iPad isn't getting an iOS upgrade.
That's way too short of a life to decide to abandon it. Telling your early adopters "tough luck" isn't a great idea.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
i've used them here. the parsing is screwy. you have to input the address exactly or it will screw it up. but it wasn't too much trouble to do it for a few contacts.
otherwise the routing works very nicely. previous maps app didn't have turn by turn and this is a pretty big improvement. especially the real time traffic from waze that's built in
1/ When Apple fired him (for being an egomaniac), the company went in the toilet.
2. When Apple rehired him, it became a trillion dollar juggernaut.
3. When he died, it began it's slide into mediocrity (as the map app debacle illustrates).
It really makes you wonder what one man's outsized ego can do to the performance of a company and/ or a product line.
Perhaps Steve would have prevailed a month or two ago and said "our map app sucks, not ready for prime time." But now there is no such ego of equivalent standing in Apple.
And the mediocrity of consensus, rather than the exacting standards of the dictator with the right aesthetic, means Apple is doomed?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Good job driving ad traffic to BGR, who didn't even bother to link to the original source:
http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Suggesting the Google Maps website is really thick. If Apple really wanted to fix the situation ASAP, why don't they re-release the Google Maps app?
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
Never thought I would see the day where Apple would introduce the iApologize...
Apple screwed up (although they are haldly unique) is pushing the concept that an Operating system is a bunch of personal and productivity applications. Road Navigation software is not part of the operating system.
The OS is the core environment, utility, houskeeping software, and desktop. Marketing idiots have confused the common consumer into thinking an OS also has programs for adding glitter to ponies.
As seen here, when an app breaks the perception becomes the who OS is flawed.
Just because it doesn't have a building exactly there doesn't mean it isn't valid to search for it. There is a 300 block on E 15th street, and searching for 315 on any mapping app other than iOS 6 maps will at least take you to a location interpolated between the two nearest real buildings on the odd side of the street.
In this case, looking at the maps, it's a public park. It's perfectly valid to reference the park as "3xx E 15th street" where xx is odd. If you search for this, you should get some point along the street on the edge of the park.
Also, someone could be searching for a valid address and typo the number. Easy to do - Any SANE mapping app will degrade gracefully in this case and take you to a location that's within visual range of your actual desired destination. Only iOS 6 maps won't.
iOS 6 maps is the only one that will take you to A COMPLETELY WRONG ROAD.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
The idea that Steve Jobs never apologized for anything seems to be starting to become a common Slashdot misconception.
I'm sure people can think of times when they wish he did apologize for something, but to say he never did would be inaccurate.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
To paraphrase the AC.
I don't think Steve would have allowed such as shitty product to completely be release.
Well you nailed it. Like Paul Mason, jobs would release no wine before its time. Moreover, someone would get fired. Like it or not his process worked. It could be that this is just going to be the learning experience they need to get back their Wu.
But in a way we are lucky. In the case of these maps, the Jobs reality distortion filed probably would have convinced us that the maps were right and the earth was wrong. If it was strong he might have just distorted the reality to match.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I think what we (the consumers and people concerned with lock-in) should be pushing for is the ability to go back to older versions of iOS on devices that we own. If every story about this failure mentioned that people who try the new version are locked in without the ability to go back to a working version, maybe Apple would cave.
The first apology is for selling too much too quickly.
The second apology is for lowering the price of the their product.
This is like when in an interview, the interviewer asks "What are your weakness", you say "Sometimes I work too hard".
We've seen some humorous issues (though some of the things being stated as issues are actually made up).
But for every day things, most searches work right now. And Apple is shipping 3D maps on mobile while Google is not.
Lastly, already Apple finds some things Google does not. It's like everyone is blind to the fact that Google has plenty of errors still. Apple with Yelp integration, is going to find most things today that people actually want found when doing a general search on a map. The high-level issues people are seeing should be cleared out in short order, probably more a matter of months than years.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Just because it doesn't have a building exactly there doesn't mean it isn't valid to search for it.
In which case Apple still finds it.
The Motorola ad was complete fabrication. But outright lies are OK as long as it's funny!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple does show you a location which can be accurately described 315 E 15th- elsewhere in the city, on a different 15th Street. This location most closely matches the search term in that there is actually a building numbered 315 there, it just isn't in Manhattan.
If you force it to look only in Manhattan by searching for "315 E 15th St Manhattan", it does interpolate the building numbers as you describe and returns a location in the park.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/27/googles-ilost-motorola-ad-faked-an-address-to-lose-ios-6-maps
What makes you think they don't do this? In the UK, the main A-Z map makers have always done this - left out one or two small streets here or there to track imaginary property theft. Trap streets are a known thing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street
Korma: Good
Apple iPhone users have no idea what they're talking about.
Fixing a buggy application can be done in a point release of software. The app is irrelevant, everybody, their dog and their dog's fleas have map reading software. What they don't have is good data. Why? It's expensive.
Fixing terabytes to petabytes of poor data is an entirely different matter from upgrading a map reading application. There are really only 2 companies with good data. Google and Nokia. Both have been buying, assembling, collecting POI data and updating and fixing base map data for years.
To fix this Apple are probably going to have to spend a fortune on large amounts of data, infrastructure to handle it, thousands of people to manage and check it. Both, expensive and slow. Then there's the weird melting 3D world that's going to have to change entirely. They'll have to decide if it's worth doing it properly or if they still think they can do it on the cheap.
Looking at what they have right now, it absolutely will not be "fixed next time".
Deleted
I just took this picture on my Android device: http://i.imgur.com/42oQd.png
That's nice, but while I was not fully clear I was talking about this:
http://i.imgur.com/iqTlW.jpg
iOS does the outlines also in normal map mode, but I like being able to see the buildings from overhead at various angles.
It is true I should not say Google has no 3D support though, just no 3D imagery in mobile maps (they have some kind of beta desktop version).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Android has those too, via Google Earth, and they are launching for maps soon.
The bottom line is that at best they existed long before Apple came along, and at worst they beat Google to it by a few months at the expense of releasing a half baked product.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Apple doesn't suck. All my gear is Apple and that's the reason why this is disappointing.
I did think of trying to cross reference population with the results because I am sure you are correct - it's the smaller towns in rural areas that have gotten the short end of the stick here. I also thought of using the Google Maps API to compare results but alas .. I've got better things to do really :-)
I think we can both agree they went backwards on this update. I'm from a small town so when it's no longer on the Map App (even though it was on the map App before) it's disappointing. You lock into a 3-year contract with the new phone and never expect that an App you use every day would suddenly become unusable.
- Port Perry Ontario pins you on an island about 5KM outside of town.
- Bracebridge Ontario pins you in a forest about 10KM outside of town when you zoom in.
- By my estimation 60% of towns in Ontario got relocated or completely wiped out.