Apple Maps Assailed with Unfair Assaults

By Jonathan Tomczak

Since its release just over three weeks ago, the new mapping application on the iPhone has driven people mad, mainly by driving them to the wrong location. Yet do people really hate the app, or do they just feel disappointed?
Built by Apple and meant to replace the Google application that has been on iPhones for five years, the maps has been the subject of many complaints, including addresses coming up in incorrect locations, a lack of detail about businesses, and the uselessness of features such as Flyover, which allows people to view (certain) areas in three dimensions.
A majority of these critiques are valid; it is the venom with which they are spoken that makes me raise an eyebrow. The fact is that the mapping application is no more a bad app than any other first release. However, because it's an Apple release, the standards are higher.
People need to realize two things: Apple needed to switch to their own mapping system, sooner rather than later, and many of the issues with the app aren't totally Apple's fault.
Google is Apple's main software competitor; this is evident in Google's stubborn refusal to provide turn-by-turn directions for iOS when it's been on Android for quite a while. The agreement keeping Google Maps on iPhones is due to expire in a year. We know what would have happened because the same thing happened with YouTube this year: Google refused to renew the agreement. Apple would have introduced its new app then anyway.
Also, Google uses its own data to fuel their maps; Apple relies on companies such as Yelp and TomTom to provide locations. Yelp is limited and TomTom is old, so I agree that Apple didn't pick the best bedfellows.
Until Apple invests in its own fleet of Priuses to drive around the world and acquire data, however, it has to rely on others.
There are two main times to use a map: when you're going to a specific place, and when you're searching for somewhere to go. Apple's maps are now better at the former, but a little worse at the latter. Yet it still does what Apple has advertised it to do.
Many complain Apple's releases haven't been revolutionary lately, but that's because the real revolution is going on behind the scenes as Apple attempts to expand the range of services that it controls. Apple's maps are the start of that.
We are in an era of Apple that is post-Steve Jobs. The spirit of the man may live on, but with Maps, we are seeing that many decisions on the development side are changing. People are used to Apple releasing products that are near perfect. With Maps, and possibly with other Apple products in the future, we're getting first releases that are, in the words of Consumer Reports, "competent." Only Apple is held to a higher standard than competency. Maps is a start, and will get better. Hopefully, the patience of the fans will as well.