Apple is Rebuilding Maps From the Ground Up (techcrunch.com)

Apple hasn't given up on Maps. After a rough first impression, an apology from the CEO, several years of patching holes with data partnerships and some glimmers of light with long-awaited transit directions and improvements in business, parking and place data, Apple Maps is still not where it needs to be to be considered a world class service. Apple is aware of this, apparently, it told TechCrunch. From a report: Apple, it turns out, is aware of this, so It's re-building the maps part of Maps. It's doing this by using first-party data gathered by iPhones with a privacy-first methodology and its own fleet of cars packed with sensors and cameras. The new product will launch in San Francisco and the Bay Area with the next iOS 12 Beta and will cover Northern California by fall.

Every version of iOS will get the updated maps eventually and they will be more responsive to changes in roadways and construction, more visually rich depending on the specific context they're viewed in and feature more detailed ground cover, foliage, pools, pedestrian pathways and more. This is nothing less than a full re-set of Maps and it's been 4 years in the making, which is when Apple began to develop its new data gathering systems. Eventually, Apple will no longer rely on third-party data to provide the basis for its maps, which has been one of its major pitfalls from the beginning.

Comments

Re:This is historically a bad move.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure sure, once a code re-write went badly therefore Apple is screwing up according to your sense of history. Unless you're predicting the future wrong, that is.

Re:But y tho?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Why bother trying to maintain their failed maps system when there are several others

Maps aren't a service tech companies want to provide to get you from point A to point B anymore. Instead, tech companies want to know where you are so you will be directed to nearby businesses (paying advertising fees) that will sell things to you. In other words, it might be best to say that Apple is reinvesting in a marketing platform that uses maps.

Companies are what they do themselves

[sjbe]

Google is a a software company that makes some hardware.

Google is an advertising company but if you call them a software company it's not far from the mark.

Apple is a hardware company that makes some software.

No they are not. They are a software company that only sells (most of) their software with a piece of hardware. But the hardware is just the packaging - not the secret sauce. Apple doesn't make hardware - they outsource that. There really isn't much difference between Apple's hardware and the competition. They DO make software - it's the core of what they do. You can tell what a company's core business is by what they do themselves versus what they buy from others. Apple's software is what people pay for. Few would buy an Apple computer without OS X and few would buy an iPhone if it ran Android. Hardware is critical to Apple's business model but calling Apple a hardware company is to misunderstand the company at a fundamental level.

I doubt Apple will ever get Maps to the quality as Google Maps is. It isn't money or resources, but how the company culture approaches the problem.

I agree with this to an extent. Apple isn't really culturally oriented towards organizing information like Google is. Apple is good at interfaces and design and user experience. Arguable among if not the best. But they never have been the best at applications and big data. Not to say they are incompetent but others do it better. Apple is exceptional at some things but they tend to pigeonhole themselves with design dogma and are more focused on building integrated devices than worrying about the information that goes on them.