Apple's new Maps in iOS 6 draw ire from users around the world

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
The launch of iOS 6 with an all-new new mapping application has caused frustration for iPhone and iPad users who feel that Apple's in-house solution is not up to par with Google.

Maps


With the launch of iOS 6 on Wednesday, the public has had their first opportunity to test out Apple's new Maps application for iPhone and iPad. The new software is a change from previous versions of iOS, which relied on Google's mapping data.

The new Maps in iOS 6 have been highlighted by numerous reviewers, including Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, as one of the few negatives in the new operating system update. Similarly, users have said they find Apple's mapping solution to be less reliable and functional than the previous collaboration with Google.

A story published Thursday in the Irish Times notes that Apple's Maps for iOS 6 have incorrectly placed a new airfield in Dublin. That prompted Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to write a tongue-in-cheek letter to Apple.

"I know on occasion mistakes can be made and I am surprised to discover that Airfield, which is the centre of my constituency in Dundrum, has, in Apple's new operating system iOS 6 maps application, been designated with the image of an aircraft," Shatter said.

Another story Thursday from NorthScotNews in Scotland declared that Apple's new Maps in iOS 6 have sent the highlands "back to the dark ages." That's because satellite imagery for areas such as Inverness, Thurso, Tain, Nairn, and Ullapool all offer only black-and-white satellite imagery.

Problems for iOS 6 Maps also exist in the U.S. One AppleInsider reader noted that a search for "Columbia SC" returns the city of Santiago De Cali in the nation of Colombia in South America.

Maps


Another story published by the BBC on Thursday also declared that Maps in iOS 6 has "provoked anger from users." In one error, the new application has renamed the town of Hagley in the U.K. as Dudley, which is a separate city actually located more than seven miles away.

Users also reported that towns such as Stratford-upon-Avon and Solihull are missing, and a search for Manchester United Football Club directs users to Sale United Football Club, a community team for ages five and up.

In moving away from Google, Apple has also ditched the popular Street View feature, which provides ground-level images of cities captured from vehicles that Google has driven all over the world. Apple's alternative is Flyover, a 360-degree view that renders topographical terrain and buildings in some major cities three dimensions.

With iOS 6, Apple has further distanced itself from Google by removing not only Google Maps, but also the built-in YouTube application that was found in all previous versions of iOS. Google launched a standalone YouTube application in the iOS App Store earlier this month to address the removal of YouTube in iOS 6.

There has been speculation that Google could also release a Google Maps application in the App Store to compete with Apple's own built-in Maps solution. But so far, the search company has yet to indicate that it will do so.

"We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world," the company said in a statement to Search Engine Land this week. "Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 490


    Ouch.  Glad I decided to hold off on upgrading.  Hopefully they can get it up to snuff soon!  Was looking forward to the built-in navigation...

  • Reply 2 of 490


    In my area it's ok, but in general it feels like a step backward. The turn-by-turn features are very welcome, but somehow I get the feeling that Apple released this too early. 


     


    Who knows, I might warm up to it.   *shrugs*


     


     


     




    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post





    "We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world," the company said in a statement to Search Engine Land this week. "Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system."


     


    Something I wouldn't mind seeing. 

  • Reply 3 of 490
    Compare my experience with iMaps to the same place in time and appearance of Google Maps on the App Store.

    Google Maps? Not only was my home in the wrong place, half the length of the road I live on was named as being a nearby county road - even though the county road was correctly located and named. Notified Google by email. Time to correction? 3 weeks.

    iMap? Only thing wrong was it located me as communicating from my next door neighbor's lot - a difference of 240'. Used the built-in correction notifier. It's right on the button, this morning.
  • Reply 4 of 490
    The new Maps App is pathetic. The story even fails to mention transit instructions! I think it's pathetic that the app suggest I download a transit app for transit directions. REALLY?!?
  • Reply 5 of 490
    the interface for the new Maps app is great and flyover, where it is available, is nice eye candy. The issue in the app is the old adage: "garbage in, garbage out." The cartography is terrible compared to Google and Bing. I can't see streets due to the choice of light streets on a light background. Traffic is non-existent in many cities, or you see a few areas where crowd-sourced data exists.

    If this was the maps we started with in 2007, no problem. However,we have had 5 years of using arguably the best dataset available in the world. And now, we are back 5-6 years in this department. Therefore, the user experience mantra has really been thrown out here.

    Yes I understand Google didn't want to give turn-by-turn etc so Apple had to do something on their own. I don't miss Steetview or Transit directions much, but I miss the quality of the standard maps, period.
  • Reply 6 of 490


    Is anyone really surprised Apple maps 1.0 is not equal to Google Maps 6.0?


     


    Give it a few months.. maybe even a year.  With user feedback and resources focused on the Apple maps.. they will eventually catch up.  I have no doubt a company with a $100 Billion in the bank.. can make a great map app.

  • Reply 7 of 490
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    Well, during the beta phase I was using it in Mumbai/India, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui/Thailand and Jakarta/Indonesia. The Apple maps are 100% useless in all these places, actually they are worse than the apps using OpenStreetMap data. Yes, they are vectorized and scale quickly, but all POIs are missing, entire blocks of cities are missing (e.g. I live on a densely populated area of Mumbai, according to Apple I live on some oversized golf course and there are no streets at all), city districts are not given in maps, some streets show only up in local language and my hotel room in Jakarta was in the middle of the ocean, which I failed to realize...

    Can't say if the US material is any better (can't be worse for sure), but this nonsense should have never been released. I can live without a pedestrian mode and public transportation info, but maps that do not contain much more than terrain and hieroglyphs for a 18 million people city, is not ready for prime time.

    Buying a Navigon mapping app is now a mandatory step if you want decent maps.
  • Reply 8 of 490
    irelandireland Posts: 17,800member
    This story wasn't written by DED. What a surprise.
  • Reply 9 of 490

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by appleabuser View Post





    If this was the maps we started with in 2007, no problem. However,we have had 5 years of using arguably the best dataset available in the world. And now, we are back 5-6 years in this department. Therefore, the user experience mantra has really been thrown out here.

     


     


    I'll have to agree with this. 


     


    Yes, I can *see* some of the great directions in which iOS Maps will go, but I feel as if we're forced to wait for something that we already had.


     


    The problem is, that iOS users came to rely on a particular Google App on iOS.    ;)


    And I don't think Apple really appreciated the degree to which this was a reality. 

  • Reply 10 of 490
    The maps app is an insult here in Dubai. We cannot even use the to-from route feature. It just gives us an "route not available" and it cannot find many places. It is absolutely terrible and Apple should be ashamed by this piece of crap. Yeah yeah, I know it will improve and that it is cloud sourced and all that but it doesn't help us right now.
  • Reply 11 of 490
    freshmaker wrote: »
    Ouch.  Glad I decided to hold off on upgrading.  Hopefully they can get it up to snuff soon!  Was looking forward to the built-in navigation...

    Built-in navigation should be fine, it just won't take you to the correct location...
    Daekwan wrote: »
    Is anyone really surprised Apple maps 1.0 is not equal to Google Maps 6.0?

    Give it a few months.. maybe even a year.  With user feedback and resources focused on the Apple maps.. they will eventually catch up.  I have no doubt a company with a $100 Billion in the bank.. can make a great map app.

    A company with $100bil in the bank should be able to do a better job than this. This isn't a simple bug, this is inaccurate map data coupled with a borked search algorithm.
  • Reply 12 of 490


    It's been working well for me in Phoenix, AZ, but that's a major US metropolitan area.  I can see it's quality degrading quicking after you leave big urban areas.


     


    I  noticed the traffic updates weren't working as of rush hour yesterday.

  • Reply 13 of 490

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Daekwan View Post


    Is anyone really surprised Apple maps 1.0 is not equal to Google Maps 6.0?


     


    Give it a few months.. maybe even a year.  With user feedback and resources focused on the Apple maps.. they will eventually catch up.  I have no doubt a company with a $100 Billion in the bank.. can make a great map app.



     


    But they've *already* had all that time in development. 


     


    Why are we being asked to wait for something we already had?


     


    Apple could have at least made their Map app as an App Store offering, with a *Beta* disclaimer somewhere, until it was ready. OR NOT RELEASE IT AT ALL UNTIL IT WAS PERFECT.

  • Reply 14 of 490
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Daekwan View Post


    Is anyone really surprised Apple maps 1.0 is not equal to Google Maps 6.0?


     


    Give it a few months.. maybe even a year.  With user feedback and resources focused on the Apple maps.. they will eventually catch up.  I have no doubt a company with a $100 Billion in the bank.. can make a great map app.



     


    Agreed.  Most of the complaints in the article are data problems that can be, and almost certainly will be, promptly fixed.  Instead of wringing their hands and complaining about errors, people should be reporting them so they can be fixed.  For years my street appeared on google maps and others are a through street instead of a cul-de-sac.  That was an inconvenience as people were directed to turn right at a non-existent intersection.  I reported it and, about a year later, it was fixed.  We'll have to wait and see to find out how responsive the Apple maps team is.


     


    These data problems could not all be caught prior to launch.  What would they do, hire 1,000,000 interns to confirm every city, street, and landmark in the world?

  • Reply 15 of 490
    If you like Google Maps better, you can always use it by hitting maps.google.com in Safari. And you can even make it a shortcut icon to the home screen.

    So. Why anger? Use your brain, not mouth.
  • Reply 16 of 490
    Not ready for prime time. The overview of my house in Rancho Mirage looks like it was shot through a cloud, and the images are extremely grainy. On google maps I could identify the cracks in the street. Another complaint is when trying to map an address in Carmel, California from my address book (the address there don't use street numbers but rather intersections), it cannot be found; never had that issue with Google Maps
  • Reply 17 of 490
    For their first trip into the maps department, I think it's a great start. They'll catch up to Google and soon enough Google will have their own app if you choose to use that instead.
  • Reply 18 of 490

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Daekwan View Post


    Is anyone really surprised Apple maps 1.0 is not equal to Google Maps 6.0?


     


    Give it a few months.. maybe even a year.  With user feedback and resources focused on the Apple maps.. they will eventually catch up.  I have no doubt a company with a $100 Billion in the bank.. can make a great map app.



     


    not at all. But folks aren't thinking about that. They expect Apple Maps 1.0 to be equal to Google Maps 7.0. If they even release that it's a new database. it's like the folks that expected Siri to be perfect for every voice not understanding that voice systems need training and that means access to millions of different voices (meaning the users). 


     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Freshmaker View Post


    Ouch.  Glad I decided to hold off on upgrading.  Hopefully they can get it up to snuff soon!  Was looking forward to the built-in navigation...



     


    You raise any interesting question. Could some of this be due to the high traffic of 'everyone' updating to iOS 6 yesterday and then hitting the Maps servers in rapid and constant use. We saw app store connections go down, especially in Passbook. We saw the whole wifi verification page crashing and so on due to high traffic. Could some of the errors especially with searching have been at least partially due to overloading the system. 

  • Reply 19 of 490


    maps.google.com in Safari. Added shortcut to homescreen. Problem temporarily solved for now. New maps, iMaps in colloquial, isn't unusable, but it's certainly a step backwards. Flyover isn't great either; 1/3 of downtown Philadelphia? Really? It just feels very un-Apple.

  • Reply 20 of 490
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    Apple could have at least made their Map app as an App Store offering, with a *Beta* disclaimer somewhere, until it was ready. OR NOT RELEASE IT AT ALL UNTIL IT WAS PERFECT.



     


    The problems being reported are data problems not software problems.  The only way data problems get "perfected" is through real-life scrutiny, which is happening now post-launch.

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