When Apple firstly announced about its Maps, many knew that building a database of information takes time and effort. Google has more than 3,000 people who work exclusively on the Google Maps and it has taken them more than 7 years to reach the level of detail, where they are today. They know search better than anyone on the planet, and when you ask Google maps anything, they give you the answer with your expectation most of the times.
Apple is a company that doesn’t invest much in research, and when it showed their mapping application with 3D views, my mind just said that they won’t be covering details for every region as building data takes time and Apple has never cared about other countries especially developing countries and regions where it doesn’t have much user base. Google on the other hand looks to even cover mars and other space regions (lol).
After the first beta seeding of iOS6, it is getting clearer that data of big cities itself is flawed, small cities don’t exist and search results within the maps are flawed. Below are 2 of the images;
After receiving massive criticism from the online world, Apple has issued a statement for the mess.
“Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features including Apple Maps, our first map service … We are excited to offer this service with innovative new features like Flyover, turn by turn navigation, and Siri integration. We launched this new map service knowing it is a major initiative and that we are just getting started with it. Maps is a cloud-based solution and the more people use it, the better it will get. We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better.”
I don’t know what to make out of the above lines. If the above statement is true, how much time will Apple take to reach the level of Google Maps. It isn’t impossible to offer functionality like Google Maps, but definitely very difficult within a short span of time.
Google in the meanwhile has issued a statement saying that they have submitted a map app to Apple, and is waiting to be approved to make it to iTunes. So, a separate Google Maps is definitely on the way for iOS users.
I am not a holder of the view that Google Maps is perfect or imperfect, but things forced on users without proper implementation is little worse for sure.
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