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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.'"

21 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 tomknight · · Score: 5, Funny

      An escape goat? Is that the opposite of a Trojan horse?

      --
      Oh arse
    2. Re:Was it justified by Edgewize · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No. Failing to deliver a quality product isn't the problem. The problem is if you promise to deliver a quality product, and then you fail.

      It seems to me like Apple wouldn't have made the switch right away on iOS 6 if they weren't confident that the software was ready. Someone had to stand up and say, "This is ready" or "This is not ready". If Mr. Williamson was in charge of it, and he told his bosses with confidence that it was ready, he should be fired. That's pretty straightforward.

    3. Re:Was it justified by Ravaldy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Thanks. I'm French and honestly didn't know. Scapegoat looks better on paper :)

    4. 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.

    5. 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.

    6. Re:Was it justified by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, scapegoat did not start with the Greeks. Scapegoat comes from the book of Leviticus where a goat was designated to be cast out into the desert as part of atonement for sins. The Greeks actually used a cripple, a beggar or a criminal for the practice you are thinking of, not a goat.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    7. 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.
    8. Re:Was it justified by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Google offered to do turn by turn navigation for the inclusion of google branding. I don't think it's unreasonable to be expected to give credit to a company who's product is contributing one of the most useful software features to your phone. Apple is just trying to position themselves to defeat Android. It's too late, and they've come to a desperate point where they're trying to do things they aren't currently capable of.

    9. 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."

    10. 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.

    11. 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?

    12. Re:Was it justified by Azure+Flash · · Score: 5, Funny

      I believe that is called a Netscapegoat.

  2. Impossible by Covalent · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Mr. Williamson promptly left Apple headquarters in Antarctica, and walked to his home in Middelfart, Denmark."

    That's impossible. Apple maps says Middelfart is south of Antarctica. Sheesh.

    --
    Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
  3. 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!
  4. Keep the firing going by slashmydots · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some people tried to take a photo with their iPhone 5 of him leaving Apple headquarters but there was a huge purple flare over most of it so you can't even tell who it is. They must have been holding it wrong or the sun in that part of the US actually is purple.

  5. Re:Lessons by MachDelta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple shot themselves in the foot on this.

    Option A) was to negotiate with Google (which they did) and accept paying more money and letting Google put their logo somewhere (which they didn't).

    Option B) was to to let it ride with no navigation (their contract with Google for just map data still had a year or two left before renewal) and work on their own map/nav system in the meantime, launching it when it was ready or the contract was up.

    Option C) was to abandon common sense, drop Google because they are evil, and quickly roll their own "superior" map/nav system on a greatly accelerated timespan. And pray that it's not a horrible, brand-damaging mess. Oops!

  6. 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.

  7. You forgot option D by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Option D: They could have straight forward have bought Tom Tom and use their application. TomTom's own devices that use the same map information had no trouble navigating where Apple was leading you nowhere. At the current share price it would be affordable for Apple to buy it and it would buy them an entrance into the dashboard of several large brands, that are already using built-in TomTom navigation devices.

    --
    I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
  8. 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?..