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Google Maps's Moat: How Far Ahead of Apple Maps is Google Maps? (justinobeirne.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Over the past year, we've been comparing Google Maps and Apple Maps in New York, San Francisco, and London -- but some of the biggest differences are outside of large cities. That's a comprehensive comparison. Google Maps, unlike Apple Maps, doesn't stop at outlining the routes. It offers contextual details such as depiction of buildings and other structures and vegetation. It has captured everything -- from dish antennae on top of buildings to golf courses. Furthermore, Google Maps also shows name of the neighbourhood, and has more distinguishable icons and colors. You can glance at a portion of the map on Google Maps and get a good picture of what's in that place. Apple Maps, on the other hand, looks empty. Like an unfurnished house.
A man using Apple Maps walks into a bar, or a hotel, or possibly a church...
Apple's maps were only ever intended to act as an insurance policy if Steve Job's thermonuclear war with Google got Google Maps removed from the App Store. That happened for a short time, but now it's back and things have cooled significantly since 2012 on the patent war. Navigation is as much a minimum expectation of a smartphone now as email is. It was only ever developed at all to ensure there would always be maps available for the iPhone. In the event that Google removes Maps from the App Store, Apple will immediately make new, immediate, and significant investments in their program. Until then, they don't care.
when Apple uses my data, it's to improve my user experience with Apple hardware and software.
Apple may make certain personal information available to strategic partners
Apple's "strategic partners" are not Apple.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
> but they will literally sell that information to anyone willing to pay.
Quite the opposite. Older companies that acquired data used to sell it, and some still do. One thing. That has made Google so successful is that they are careful to keep the data to themselves. It's their golden goose. They sell ADS that are targeted using the data. That way they can keep selling ads to the same companies for years, rather than selling data once. They never sell the data because then it could be passed around and that would reduce their competitive advantage.