Tim Cook apologises for Apple Maps
Says "we fell short"
Although the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 operating system have generally been well received, the same can’t be said about Apple’s new Maps app.
It’s the first time that Apple has created its own Mapp App, dumping Google Maps. It was always going to be a brave decision, as this kind of app is very hard to get right, and Apple has stumbled to the point where Apple CEO Tim Cook has issued an apology.
“At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers,” said Cook’s statement. “With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.”
Maps has been criticised all-round for a variety of problems, ranging from locations being missing or in the wrong place, the search jumping to the wrong country or failing to find anything, and satellite imagery being obscured by cloud cover. Google Maps, by contrast, has always been brilliant at finding locations by name, location or full street address, and is sorely missed by most iOS 6 users.
In his apology, Cook even suggest that while Apple is updating its own maps, you can try alternatives “by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.”
While Apple’s Maps is pretty bad, we at least applaud that fact that the company recognises this and has issued this statement. The real question is, how long will it take Apple to fix the problem?