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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.
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.
It's cute how apple keeps trying with maps.
You forgot the 'blockchain' bit.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
That's good to hear. Maybe the new maps will have all of I-140 around Wilmington, NC. It opened last year before Thanksgiving and still isn't showing up on the map. You can see the damn road in the satellite view. I even sent them an email asking them to add it about 2 months ago.
As an aside, I've noticed that few kids these days, with their iPhones and maps (probably from Google), know where they are. But they all know where they're going.
... a piece of cake for Apple to pull off. After all, they've got obscene amounts of money on the bank.
I wish they'd give back some of their data to the OSM project that saved their ass a few years back when they ditched Google maps, but that's probably to much to ask for.
Anyhow, competition in the maps space can't hurt. It's Google, then a massive gap and then some nifty OSM stuff. If Apple can throw a third maps thing into this, it's all for the better IMHO. Google can use some top-tier competitor pissing in their territory.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Google is a a software company that makes some hardware.
Apple is a hardware company that makes some software.
Google hardware isn't bad, and neither is Apples Software.
However the approaches to problems are different.
The Google Pixel uses more software to correct the image and focusing from its little camera. Apple is more likely to put more hardware behind a better camera, and less on the software.
It is like giving a problem to both a Carpenter and a Welder. They will solve the problems with what they feel best at doing. So we can have one solution made out of wood, and the other made out of metal, with the advantages and disadvantages of both methods.
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.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
someone will be able to fact check this:
Back in the late 80's early 90' there was an amazing word processor called Wordstar. They choose to do a re-write of the code from top to bottom. At the same time Microsoft just came out with version 2 or 3 there's word processor. It was a race, and Microsoft choose to do a side by side development, where old code was upgraded with anything new they came up with, and the new ground-up version was being done with features from the old copied and tested and new stuff.
Microsoft won because they rolled out the upgrades ( we did not ( as i recall ) have on-line MS upgrades, but disk mailed upgrades, and pirate-BBS type shareware upgrades ) , people had the latest features without much issue and no real learning curve, and they walked everyone into the new word processor.
Wordstar flopped on the code re-write with too many bugs and people became dis-satisfied.
I hope Apple and other reading this take this lesson and apply it
if you see me, smile and say hello.
All our effort ought to go towards OpenStreetMap. It's time to end proprietary map data and the anti-data commercial mapping businesses create to circumvent copyright law.
>> 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.
This seems a bit wasteful for society. We are now mapping things twice.
Not really wasteful. Since there are roughly a billion iPhones out there in the world, if Apple just gets the data from them, it basically has the mapping already, with real time updating.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
In the case of Maps you are not really talking about a re-write of software so much as a larger and more accurate set of data being gathered.
Everyone knows the big software re-writes are problematic but this is not that. It's more of a gradual improvement over what is there, walking users into new maps features as it were... there will be no learning curve here either, just improved maps over time with more features.
You also left out a huge part of your story, which is the bundling that Microsoft did with Word making Word the default choice for Windows and leading Wordstar to starve. What about WordPerfect? It was excellent word processing software (better than Word), did not have the same re-write issue, yet it died as well. Can you honestly say there is ANYTHING Wordstar could have done to overcome the advantages Word had?
Every iOS device (and Mac) ships with Apple Maps, that is also its own huge advantage... as is Apples very large pile of cash to be able to afford quality efforts of upgrade, Wordstar did not have a massive cash slush fund it could afford to keep improving forever.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
> Google hardware isn't bad, and neither is Apples Software.
I see you're not an iTunes for Windows user.
It's pretty bad on MacOS too.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Why bother trying to maintain their failed maps system when there are several others they could partner with?
Because you don't want to depend on third party vendors for something like that if you don't have to. Not at Apple's scale anyway. For mobile devices these days it qualifies as critical functionality. The importance of it almost cannot be overstated. So yeah it makes sense for Apple to be rolling their own so to speak.
And frankly their maps system hasn't failed. Far from it. It's got flaws of course but it's been getting the job done just fine for lots of people. The problem isn't that it is terrible but rather that it lags the competition to some degree. It would be bad for Apple if it started lagging too far behind. For some people it already does.
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.
I say this as an ardent Apple product user and shareholder:
Apple, just stop with the maps. We have Google Maps. Thatâ(TM)s enough. You finally let us use it with CarPlay, for which we are very grateful. That is all you needed to do. Spend your Maps resources on something else. Thank you.
Apple Maps isn't very good. However, I trust Google less and less with each passing day, and I would just as soon have them out of my digital life entirely if it were possible. I switched from Google search to DuckDuckGo and haven't been any worse for wear. I've stopped using Google Drive for iCloud Drive + Dropbox, and I've largely abandoned Google Docs. Maps and Gmail though are really hard to get rid of today.
I hope that they and the HERE people persevere and make a viable alternative to Google Maps/Waze (one and the same company now really). Having only one viable choice in the market is bad for everyone. I wish Apple would offer mail as well with import from Gmail -- I'd get Google out of my life forever.
- Vincit qui patitur.