Apple has dropped the ball with iPhone 5 and maps

Fillado said:
I think they were forced to. Their license with Google expired and I doubt they could've extended it by just a year or something. As has been shown with Android Google can be pretty ruthless when it comes to this kind of thing.

Don't get me wrong part of it is the anti-Google thing at Apple now. But they have to go through this pain (which is amusing :p ) to get a decent Apple controlled service.

It's almost like Nokia have done with Windows Phone. Release whatever you have that puts you on a path for the future while killing off the past.

But yes they knew this time would come and they are the biggest company in the world. As I stated in another thread they have enough money to buy out both TomTom and NAVTEQ at least 16 time over. IMO because Tim Cook is now in charge they are effectively crowd-sourcing their new maps instead of spending the money.

*Edit*



Because the only alternatives to TomTom are NAVTEQ (owned by Nokia and now used extensively by Microsoft in Bing/Windows Phone 8) and Google. They had the money to do it right but like I said I think Tim Cook (basically a money man) is being cheap and just crowd-sourcing most of it.
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One of the reasons Apple severed their ties on the maps side was that Google was being very greedy as in when a developers app that used google maps had had so many hits using the map api, the developer was then charged a $1.00 per hit on google maps after that, so it doesnt take a genius to work out google were raking in the dollars for basically doing nothing when you consider the amount of ios devices out there, hence Apple decided to develop thier own map software.

Yes its pants at present but it can only get better over time, glad I still have the Tom Tom app on my phone.

Cheers all
 
Went for a walk in the forest on sunday and the maps from ioS5 were great much better than even tom tom as tom tom wasn't built for walking where as the maps app is great for it.

No problems so far around my area.
 
the sorry apology for maps and the statement about scuffs have now come out.

i wonder how this will affect the general public when deciding to buy the phone.

whenever someone shows me their phone i can always see marks and point them out to them. not what you expect from a premium product at this price.
 
MaX_PoWah said:
Why did they even release it as it is, why not just use ios5 and google maps lol, why give themselves all this headache, whatever there reasons for doing it i am sure it could have waited while they fixed it and then rolled out ios6 when it was ready - i could understand if the phone was hugely different and it needed a proper refresh of IOS to make the most of it but its not really is it..
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probably because the fundamental problem with the maps application is the data.

They probably got the data as good as they could without using google. TomTom have a streetview thing starting but arent anywhere near as good as google yet.

As somebody already said they are using crowd sourcing to get the data up to scratch. This will take some time, but not years. Given the aim of the IOS maps application was to "not use google" they probably got it as good as they could at launch. How many other data sources could they use that would have been as good as googles ?
 
I see more people bothered about the chips and scratches than the people bothered about the maps being carp. I havent seen anyone on these forums returning them because the software is bad, but i've seen loads because it isn't as pretty as they thought it should be.
 
Yeh the iPhone 5 is rubbish because of the maps app, I for one won't be buying into their........ Oh wait?

People forget Apple couldn't give a frack if you bought their product or not because they already know millions have been converted to apple nodding dolls and will buy regardless.

Just go to any apple store and check it out yourself, all those blue t-shirts are waiting for is you to hand over a credit card.

I recently bought a retina MacBook, 3 days later I took it back as it was playing up... Couldn't get a genius appointment so I said I wanted my ££ back. Not one hint of emotion from any of the staff involved, they didn't even want to know what was wrong with it. 1mim later I walked out with my £2.299 back no questions asked.

Sent from my iPhone 4S with that killer maps app
 
roman59 said:
One of the reasons Apple severed their ties on the maps side was that Google was being very greedy as in when a developers app that used google maps had had so many hits using the map api, the developer was then charged a $1.00 per hit on google maps after that, so it doesnt take a genius to work out google were raking in the dollars for basically doing nothing when you consider the amount of ios devices out there, hence Apple decided to develop thier own map.
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Basically doing nothing? I dont think so. Google invested in providing a useful mapping service. Something that Apple hasn't got. They set the price and if Apple doesnt want to pay it then that's fine, but Google have got nothing to do with Apple landing us with a shoddy alternative.
 
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Like any Apple product the critics will pore over every detail of the iPhone and try and make a mountain out of a molehill over any potential problem and make it out to be the 'beginning of the end for apple'.
In reality it's not. If you wanted you could make the screenshots people are making with Apple vs Google maps with any software. You have the entire planet to find a weak point. Find a bad map on mapping software A which has a good map on mapping software B and 'OMG Apple maps is ****, they should never have shipped it, everyone should have bought a Galaxy III'.
I'm sure there are many areas where Apple Maps is better and google maps was **** where nobody said anything.
 
Mattus said:
Not sure I buy the complaints about the build quality. I think it's the sort of thing which affects a small minority of users and is inevitably over-reported. Apple seems to be held to higher standards on build quality than other manufacturers - certainly iPhones are better made than a large majority of Android phones, and yet it's Apple who gets held to account.

The Maps app, on the other hand, is atrocious. I get that the only way to fill in holes in the database is to open it up to the public and crowdsource the corrections. That would be fine if the issue was simply lack of local listings. But the app doesn't get basic things right. Entire towns are disappearing. You can't find Man United, for Pete's sake.

Why didn't Apple blow some of that cash pile on licensing some decent map and satellite data? Heads should roll for this. If you're gonna replace a mature, popular product overnight, you'd better damn hope your own is up to scratch.
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I disagree, the HTC One S had a similar anodising problem and that had a massive number of complaints before HTC managed to sort the process out and stop the chipping. It's not that Apple are held to higher standards, it's that they fall into the same pitfalls as every other hardware company (for all we know they are using the same company HTC used to do the backs).
 
roman59 said:
One of the reasons Apple severed their ties on the maps side was that Google was being very greedy as in when a developers app that used google maps had had so many hits using the map api, the developer was then charged a $1.00 per hit on google maps after that, so it doesnt take a genius to work out google were raking in the dollars for basically doing nothing when you consider the amount of ios devices out there, hence Apple decided to develop thier own map software.

Yes its pants at present but it can only get better over time, glad I still have the Tom Tom app on my phone.

Cheers all
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I was a little suspicious of your figures so I did a little research, turns out that Google have actually dropped their pricing by up to 3/4 and its 250 times cheaper than you say @ $1/1000 hits. So not really.
I would have thought the reason why Apple dropped google is that Apple are distancing themself from google as they are their main competitor.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/23/google-drops-cost-of-maps-api-to-keep-developers/
 
MrLOL said:
probably because the fundamental problem with the maps application is the data.

They probably got the data as good as they could without using google. TomTom have a streetview thing starting but arent anywhere near as good as google yet.

As somebody already said they are using crowd sourcing to get the data up to scratch. This will take some time, but not years. Given the aim of the IOS maps application was to "not use google" they probably got it as good as they could at launch. How many other data sources could they use that would have been as good as googles ?
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For things like satellite imaging? Loads. There are companies you haven't even heard of that specialise in this sort of thing for far more important clients than the general public (like charities, Oil/Gas and mining, Governments) that offer high quality datasets of the world. Unfortunately they cost a lot of money which may be one of the reasons Apple don't appear to have used them.
 
squarebutt said:
I see more people bothered about the chips and scratches than the people bothered about the maps being carp. I havent seen anyone on these forums returning them because the software is bad, but i've seen loads because it isn't as pretty as they thought it should be.
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I'll put my hand up and say I sold my iPhone 5 because of iOS and the maps. I went over to a Samsung Galaxy S3 and I'm really glad I have to be honest. I've had iPhones since the first one. This is my first Android phone and I can't see myself going back to iOS unless they manage to do amazing things with it.

I do miss the quality feel of the iPhone 5 in the hand but on every other level the SGS3 is ahead for me.
 
Hamish said:
Like any Apple product the critics will pore over every detail of the iPhone and try and make a mountain out of a molehill over any potential problem and make it out to be the 'beginning of the end for apple'.
In reality it's not. If you wanted you could make the screenshots people are making with Apple vs Google maps with any software. You have the entire planet to find a weak point. Find a bad map on mapping software A which has a good map on mapping software B and 'OMG Apple maps is ****, they should never have shipped it, everyone should have bought a Galaxy III'.
I'm sure there are many areas where Apple Maps is better and google maps was **** where nobody said anything.
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Just like when there is a legitimate problem the fan boys make up all sorts to justify them and can't criticise them.
 
:D:D

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ince said:
Just like when there is a legitimate problem the fan boys make up all sorts to justify them and can't criticise them.
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I'm not saying Apple is perfect, I'm just saying that if another manufacturer released a phone with these maps a review might say in passing "the maps application could do with some work", wheras with Apple it's OMG! the world is ending! epic fail! never buying another apple product again, iSheep will buy whatever iShiny Apple release, Mapgate! etc.

Apple maps just lacks in some areas that google excelled in, it's easy to pick and choose screenshots to show it's terrible but in reality it isn't.

Same goes with other problems e.g. Antennagate - I've had an iPhone 4 for almost 2 years and never get any worse reception than anyone else, and have never had a dropped call even though i hold my phone left handed which is supposed to make the problem worse. They still sell iPhone4s and nobody even mentions the problem anymore.
 
Hamish said:
Like any Apple product the critics will pore over every detail of the iPhone and try and make a mountain out of a molehill over any potential problem and make it out to be the 'beginning of the end for apple'.
In reality it's not. If you wanted you could make the screenshots people are making with Apple vs Google maps with any software. You have the entire planet to find a weak point. Find a bad map on mapping software A which has a good map on mapping software B and 'OMG Apple maps is ****, they should never have shipped it, everyone should have bought a Galaxy III'.
I'm sure there are many areas where Apple Maps is better and google maps was **** where nobody said anything.
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Please, show me an example of where Apple's maps are correct and Google's are wrong.
There are so many errors just in my local vacinity that I can't even list them all. Places missing, streets mis-named, my town not even listed, major stadium 5 miles from where it actually is, directions that take me the wrong way down one-way streets. It really is terrible and isn't just people looking for problems.
 
It's got very little to do with whether it's Apple or not. Company "A" replace an extremely popular and useful function with something that could be barely described as a beta and they think it's ok. Nokia could do the same thing and the reaction would be similar.

Apple are playing in the big boy league now with hundreds of millions of customers. They can't dish out crud and expect us all to call it ice cream. We'll just go elsewhere.
 
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