Maps

Maps

Let’s be completely clear about this - the negative publicity surrounding Maps has a lot more to do with attacking Apple than true user disappointment with the app.  While there are absolutely areas in maps that can and will be fixed, the app on the whole works very well.  Along with anecdotal evidence (the staff here has tested Maps extensively), Maps have been independently verified to be 99+% accurate.  Obviously the goal is that Maps should never make a mistake.  In reality all mapping software has it’s issues, and many of the problems being reported on Maps are actually also present on competing platforms.

Issues...

Image Stitching issues:

Every company developing a 3D mapping system has a few issues stitching images.  Essentially the software that auto-generates 3D modeling and texturing is extremely complicated (this is not done by hand). Below is a great example from Google’s 3D maps - strangely I don’t remember the entire tech press predicting future unemployment in Mountain View.


Directions:

More than 99% of directions being delivered via Apple Maps are accurate.  Google Maps, despite whatever the tech news industry seems to be saying, is also not 100% accurate.  Here we’re arguing about some fraction of a percent variance between the two solutions.  Any glaring location changes that need to be made in Maps are being corrected as we speak.  Mix in the crowd-sourcing, and it’s likely that Maps will be more accurate than most other solutions within weeks.

No Street View:

Did anyone actually use Street View?  I said “use”, not “show it off one time to a grandparent so you could ‘wow’ them with your futuristic glow screen”.  Let’s be honest with ourselves, Street View is a gimmick.

Lack of worth aside, Street View also completely sucks.  Hopefully when you entered Street View you were at the EXACT right location.  Have you ever tried navigating in there?  It must take about an hour to move 12 feet down the street.

Further, why hasn’t anyone ever used this as an argument against Bing’s maps, Garmin’s, etc?

Mass Transit:

There are other, more accurate apps for specific systems of mass transit.

The Awesome...

While everyone has been busy complaining about Maps, people seem to have completely overlooked it’s many great features.  Flyover provides the most detailed, beautiful images of major cities offered by any mapping application.  Siri integration makes searching locations and acquiring directions easier than on any other platform.  Turn by turn directions, unlike Street View, are a feature that is essential in a modern mobile operating system.  The maps themselves are gorgeous pieces of art that surpass anything before them.

While the reasons above are more than enough justification to use, if not prefer, Maps. There is yet another reason that for many trumps all other features - Apple maps are 7 times more efficient than Googles. What does that mean to the average user?  Well most customers are not on an unlimited data plan. For anyone watching their data, probably the last place you want to waste it is on your maps app. A 1.3mb google maps download is 270kb when drawn with vector graphics in Maps.

The bottom line...

Journalism is all about ratings - tech writers are no different.  Predicting Apple will have continued success is old news.  When a company has proven itself so many times, the only way to make headlines is to predict failure.  Maps are simply the most recent display of the tech world driving ratings by predicting Apple’s demise.  Ping, MobileMe, hell the G4 Cube - have all been avenues tech journalists have tried to make in to the proverbial canary in the coal mine.  The reality is that even the most talented and successful company in the world will occasionally have a stumble.  Maps few issues are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, as well as overshadowed by the advantages Maps offer over the old Google Maps solution.  Tech writers will continue to predict Apple’s death, analysts will continue to say otherwise - investors will be caught in the crossfire.