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Apple Axes Head of Mapping Team

Posted by Unknown on from the openstreetmaps-for-all dept.

New submitter drkim writes "'Apple has reportedly fired the head of its mapping team following software glitches which annoyed customers and rained mockery on the company.' Mr. Williamson promptly left Apple headquarters in Antarctica, and walked to his home in Middelfart, Denmark." Nerval's Lobster adds: "Cue is also 'seeking advice from outside map-technology experts' as well as 'prodding maps provider TomTom to fix landmark and navigation data it shares with Apple.'"

11 of 372 comments (clear)

  1. Was it justified by Ravaldy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Was this guy setup for failure by having to meeting google map standards overnight?

    Firing people sometimes is an escape goat for companies mistakes.

    1. Re:Was it justified by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The real idiocy here was the fact that there was some idiot executive that insisted that the wheel be reinvented. They let hatered of Google get in the way of day-to-day business here. They could of made sure the google maps were easy to use on their devices and spent the effort coming up with something that Android doesn't do instead.

      They should be firing the person that a "mapping team" was a good idea to begin with.

    2. Re:Was it justified by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Clearly you've never worked for a large company before.
      It wouldn't surprise me if he said over and over again "There's no way in hell this is ready", but they deployed it anyway.
      They probably also asked him "does it work at all?" to which he responded "sort of", and that was enough for them.
      That's how big companies work, they don't give a damn about your input.

    3. Re:Was it justified by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You almost have it right. They certainly do ignore the worker bees who shout "it won't work", but they don't ignore management saying the same thing. Instead, people who never say "it won't work" slowly get promoted over people who do, and you end up with no one in management who will ever say "it won't work".

      I'm quite certain that this Mr. Williamson probably didn't say no to his bosses very often, and I don't particularly feel bad for him.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    4. Re:Was it justified by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know, it sounds more likely to me that it went
      "Rich, are the maps ready?"

      "What? No, we haven't finished testing."

      "Well, we told Google to fuck off this morning, so it's ready. Don't worry, I'll make sure everyone who matters knows that it went out too soon."

      (That afternoon in boardroom)

      "Yeah, Williamson assured me the maps were ready to go, so we told Google we weren't interested. My stock options just got a little sweeter."

    5. Re:Was it justified by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's pretty likely that the practice didn't start with the bible, but was merely documented in the bible based on an existing practice. Unless, of course, you consider the bible to be Word of God, in which case maybe he did use the bible to instruct his followers to sacrifice goats. He was pretty weird back then.

    6. Re:Was it justified by shellbeach · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There was no way to get key features (turn-by-turn directions) without meeting google's demands (for more user data).

      No, but they could have met Google's demands in the short-term easily enough until they had an alternative ready for release, rather than rushing out something prematurely. When you're already losing market share hand over fist, why give people another reason to switch to Android?

  2. I like the new maps.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Personally I still like the new maps app. Even on my old iphone4 it's faster and easier to read and does everything I want. It's even got more features than the previous map app.
    Then again, I live in California and don't suffer from the bad map issues that other regions have had.

    Let's hope apple learns from this lesson. Old Jobs hasn't been in the ground long and already their first "convenience over QC" choice has come back to bite them. Jobs was a QC /fanatic/ and would not have let the shitty maps slip out (Or stay there for long) even if staying with google was a thorn in their side.

    And it was a thorn. Google is a competitor now. Google also wanted better terms if apple wanted to add new mapping features. Apple decided that it was not worth it.. And they were wrong.

    I think if Jobs was still here he'd have slapped people around, re-negotiated with Google, and quickly have a patch issued to revert the maps. We'll see if apple continues to stumble in this very un-apple like manner.

    With any luck google will issue a new maps app and everyone will be happy.

    1. Re:I like the new maps.. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Jobs was a QC /fanatic/ ... .

      You definition of either Quality Control or fanatic differs from mine. In particular, Apple has NEVER been about QC. You don't buy Rev 1 of anything Apple unless you are a dyed in wool fanboy. You don't load x.x.0 of any Apple OS unless you are a dyed in wool masochist.

      Yeah, Apple eventually gets it right, mostly. But they've never adhered to the 'fix it before it ships' mentality.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  3. Taking the fall... by erp_consultant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem wasn't so much that the Apple maps were terrible. With a few notable exceptions it actually wasn't bad for a first attempt. Remember, Google Maps wasn't very good at first either. The problem was promoting the Apple Maps as this awesome, fantastic piece of software. Someone in the Apple management chain needed to say "Uh Tim, maybe we should dial back the excitement a bit on this maps thing. Have you seen it? It needs work.". Evidently nobody did so Cook rolled it out thinking it was great and it wasn't.

    Cook looks like an idiot, and by extension so does Apple, so something had to be done about it. He can't allow that to happen. If they lie to him about Maps then how can he trust them to tell him the truth about the next product? If I were him I would have done exactly the same thing. He needs to send a message to management that this sort of thing won't be tolerated. If the product is not ready then fine, we'll figure out something but don't bullshit me and leave me hanging out to dry in front our customers. It might seem harsh but these people are getting paid a ton of money to make the right decisions. If you screw up you're gone.

  4. Re:iOS Google maps ALREADY had branding by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because they do NOTHING to help users. You know, the poor bastards that actually have to use the maps? How does it help to hide more map data under a bigger logo? How does it help to push a location based social media system no-one uses through the official maps app?

    No-one has entitled you to speak for all the users. I am a heavy Latitude user. If I still owned an Apple device, I'd use Latitude with Maps if it was available there.

    Besides, the whole "doesn't help the users" argument as it pertains to iOS Maps debacle is completely inane, since switching to obviously inferior-quality data not only did nothing to help the users, it did a lot to hurt them - hence all the vocal backlash from the userbase that is trivial to find online. And what, exactly, the users get in return? A pretty but ultimately mostly useless ability to see 3D buildings in satellite mode, and?..