While a few have stuck up for the product, there seems to be a general consensus that Apple Maps is bad. Apple dropped Google Maps with its latest iOS update, opting to go with its own product (which actually draws from TomTom and a variety of other offerings).
While the move does make some amount of competitive sense for Apple as the company’s relationship with Google grows increasingly cold, a lot of iOS users are simply unhappy. A standalone Google Maps app from Google itself is expected soon, but Apple’s product will remain the default experience, and possibly get a lot of people lost. Here’s a Tumblr looking at some of the known problems with the product.
That, by the way, was shared by one of the original Google Mobile Maps designers on Google+ yesterday:
As one of the original designers of Google Mobile Maps I remember how difficult it was working with Apple. But this just blows my mind.
The Amazing iOS 6 Maps
The Apple iOS 6 Maps are amazing. Not.
I wonder if Apple has tried to hire him yet. A report from TechCrunch, citing “a source with connections on both teams,” says Apple is “aggressively” recruiting ex-Google Maps staff. Darrell Etherington reports:
My source — a contractor who worked on Google Maps as part of a massive undertaking to integrate Street View and newly licensed third-party data to improve European coverage, as well as develop the platform’s turn-by-turn navigation — says that when attention turned to indoor mapping, things started to become less interesting and a lot of staff began looking around for other opportunities. That turned out to be good timing for Cupertino.
Apple sold over 5 million iPhone 5s in the device’s first weekend of availability, and the iOS 6 update spans not only that, but the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch (4th and 5th generation), iPad 2 and New iPad.