Apple reportedly waived one year of Google Maps contract in switch to iOS Maps [u]
A report on Tuesday claims Apple had over one year left on its contract with Google Maps when it made the decision to replace the app with a proprietary solution, leaving the internet search giant with little time to develop a standalone version capable of running on iOS 6.
Update: The New York Times has confirmed with its own sources that Google is indeed building a maps app, however the software will likely not be available for months as the company was "caught off guard" when Apple announced iOS Maps. Google Maps for iOS will possibly be released by the end of the year.
According to two separate sources familiar with the matter, the decision to replace Google Maps came shortly before Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, meaning Google had a short window with which to build a new iOS app. The sources go on to say the standalone Google Maps is largely incomplete and will not ship for "several months," reports The Verge.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said as much in a short interview on Tuesday, revealing that the company has "not done anything yet" in terms of submitting an standalone app to Apple.
As for Apple's decision to ditch Google's mapping service, Schmidt said, "What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It's their call."
Apple's proprietary mapping solution was introduced at WWDC, with iOS chief Scott Forstall touting the app's turn-by-turn directions, crowd-sourced traffic data, Siri integration and 3D Flyover capabilities. The company was also said to be handling the cartography in house in its bid to replace Google Maps, a bold undertaking given Google's service has been continuously fine-tuned over the past decade.
3D rendering issues in Apple's Maps app.
The move to introduce a totally new mapping system with iOS 6 and the new iPhone 5 was reportedly a result of the disparity of features between the Android and iOS versions of Google Maps. One key feature was free turn-by-turn directions, something that Google has been including in its Android OS for years.
In a bid to upstage Apple's announcement, Google announced the "next dimension" of Google Maps a few days prior to WWDC. The new feature turned out to be similar to Apple's Flyover and offers 3D renderings of certain large metropolitan areas.
When it was released last week alongside iOS 6, Apple's new iOS Maps met a flood of criticism from users who complained of incorrect positioning data, poor routing and Flyover rendering issues. Perhaps most troubling was the lack of features users had become accustomed to with Google Maps, such as Street View, highly-detailed map data and public transit routes.
Update: The New York Times has confirmed with its own sources that Google is indeed building a maps app, however the software will likely not be available for months as the company was "caught off guard" when Apple announced iOS Maps. Google Maps for iOS will possibly be released by the end of the year.
According to two separate sources familiar with the matter, the decision to replace Google Maps came shortly before Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, meaning Google had a short window with which to build a new iOS app. The sources go on to say the standalone Google Maps is largely incomplete and will not ship for "several months," reports The Verge.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said as much in a short interview on Tuesday, revealing that the company has "not done anything yet" in terms of submitting an standalone app to Apple.
As for Apple's decision to ditch Google's mapping service, Schmidt said, "What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It's their call."
Apple's proprietary mapping solution was introduced at WWDC, with iOS chief Scott Forstall touting the app's turn-by-turn directions, crowd-sourced traffic data, Siri integration and 3D Flyover capabilities. The company was also said to be handling the cartography in house in its bid to replace Google Maps, a bold undertaking given Google's service has been continuously fine-tuned over the past decade.
3D rendering issues in Apple's Maps app.
The move to introduce a totally new mapping system with iOS 6 and the new iPhone 5 was reportedly a result of the disparity of features between the Android and iOS versions of Google Maps. One key feature was free turn-by-turn directions, something that Google has been including in its Android OS for years.
In a bid to upstage Apple's announcement, Google announced the "next dimension" of Google Maps a few days prior to WWDC. The new feature turned out to be similar to Apple's Flyover and offers 3D renderings of certain large metropolitan areas.
When it was released last week alongside iOS 6, Apple's new iOS Maps met a flood of criticism from users who complained of incorrect positioning data, poor routing and Flyover rendering issues. Perhaps most troubling was the lack of features users had become accustomed to with Google Maps, such as Street View, highly-detailed map data and public transit routes.
Comments
Some people say that I never criticize Apple? Well, if this article is true, then Apple clearly should have kept Google maps for one more year while they kept working on and improving their own Maps App.
Somebody at Apple made a poor decision. I think that Apple's map app works pretty good, but I don't think that anybody's going to deny that it needs a bit more work. Making a worldwide mapping solution is obviously not an easy or quick task that's done in 1,2,3.
Give Apple an extra year to make flyover models of buildings, get everything tagged, correlate satellite and map better... then maybe.
Even without knowing about this rumoured extra year I've been saying that Apple needed another year of development for Apple Maps. It has massive potential but it's just not fully baked at this time. That said, it's gotten considerably better since the first beta only a few month prior. That that said said, I think this is exactly the kind of thing Jobs would have released if he were CEO.
PS: I would like them to license Navteq's street view or just make their own using the same tech in FlyOver but with advanced algorithms that could eventually take out cars and people (moving objects) while leaving the structures in place.
They should have used that year to bake it some more. A lot more. As a stop-gap they could have easily added turn-by-turn to the existing Maps app, which they should have.
But no. People here on AI won't understand that. Apple can do no wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apple ][
Some people say that I never criticize Apple? Well, if this article is true, then Apple clearly should have kept Google maps for one more year while they kept working on and improving their own Maps App.
Somebody at Apple made a poor decision. I think that Apple's map app works pretty good, but I don't think that anybody's going to deny that it needs a bit more work. Making a worldwide mapping solution is obviously not an easy or quick task that's done in 1,2,3.
From the tenor of the paraphrased remarks, I would guess that the sources were closer to Google than Apple. My suspicion is that Apple receive information indicating that Google Maps for iOS was going to continue lacking feature compatibility with Google for Android, and thus Apple elected to cease supporting imminent mediocrity.
Cheers
If they are using Google's back end I'm not sure they would be allowed. This makes me wonder if switching now so people can have TbT might not have been the best of the two options. It's certainly people have been wanting and could account for some reasons people choose Android over iPhone.
So not only did Apple put out an inferior product but they did so in a way that would force their customers to go without the best mobile mapping solution on the planet.
Steps Apple could have taken.
1. Tell google ahead of time. Have Apple maps preloaded on the iphone, but work with google to have maps app ready to go in the app store, just so their customers that value google maps, in locations where apple maps are unusable had an option.
2. Put apple maps as open beta in the app store and keep google maps on the iphone as default.
3. Have both google maps and Apple maps on the phone, customers pick.
But what did Apple do.
Tell google so late that they knew there wouldn't be google maps app in the app store, while also releasing thier beta maps app, and calling it a revolution in the mapping industry.
I never thought id see the day where Apple's hatred for a competitor/partner would matter more that customer needs.
Apple hatred for google> apple customers. I wonder if dropping google search in favor of "x seach engine" will come soon. Shame apple, ahame.
Wow. Wannabe armchair cartographers are out in full force today. I didn't realize there were so many people qualified to tell Apple what to do.
Maps works great for me. GoogleMaps had its hit-and-misses to this day but I don't put them over the fire pit. Streetview is nice, would be nice to have something similar to that in Apple's offerings but in the end, I don't need street view to get where I'm going.
If I were paying for maps, I would probably raise a stink. However, since both are FREE services, I can't necessarily whine about it like you guys are. I have better things to do. So should you.
Maps work better. They have had 5 years of Apples user data
To refine them. The only way to develop this type of product is
In the wild. Everything Google has every released has been in beta
For years including maps. The learn from the feed back.
1) You don't need crowdsourcing to know there is a defined road that has existed for decades.
2) Apple builds the front end of their maps so they could have been pulling location and search request data from their Maps app since June 29th, 2007.
3) There are some things that will need crowdsourcing from analyzing server data in much the same was Siri needs to get better but the problems people are expressing are almost entirely not about crowdsourcing issues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by einsteinbqat
Steve Jobs would be so pissed off right now! He would probably be yelling at some people if he was still here.
Maps was probably in development long before Steve Jobs passed away. He knew what was going on. I suspect he would have approved of it in its current form.
Good riddens. Google sux.
Now another source is saying the app is incomplete and won't ship for months.
My source is calling BS on this whole story.