Apple Inc. (AAPL)

[Lephturn]

Why does google want to release a maps app for the iphone now? This is a huge issue for upgrading to IO6 for a lot of people. Why make it easier for them?

Does any money come in for the use of maps?

Yes - it's all about mobile ad dollars. Google Maps - and the locations that pop up - drive ad impressions. By pulling Google Maps Apple is both taking revenue from a company that has become a competitor and positioning themselves to gain that revenue. Good move long term.

[jcgd]

Yes - it's all about mobile ad dollars. Google Maps - and the locations that pop up - drive ad impressions. By pulling Google Maps Apple is both taking revenue from a company that has become a competitor and positioning themselves to gain that revenue. Good move long term.

Yes, I agree it is a good strategy. However, I think they really jumped the gun. I just think it is a (rare) spot of weakness for Apple until their Map app is up to snuff.

[brad]

I just think it is a (rare) spot of weakness for Apple until their Map app is up to snuff.

It's actually not so atypical for Apple to do this kind of thing. They've rushed other things to market before they were ready: MobileMe, the Newton, the earlier versions of OSX, etc., and even Siri wasn't quite ready for prime time when it was released. I think the difference this time is that there's a much larger affected user base, and the impact is much more serious because it cripples a feature that most of those users rely on daily. This is a pretty big deal and a pretty big stumble for Apple. It's not stopping the millions of people from lining up to buy their iPhones today, but Apple will have to spend a lot of time fielding complaints and rushing to fix this issue, which cannot be fixed overnight or even in the next few months.

It's true, though, that iPhone users can just go to the mobile Google Maps website, but I'm not sure it offers all the functionality that people had with the previous Maps app in iOS that ran on Google Maps.

[ddkay]

Download MapQuest: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mapqu...316126557?mt=8

It's free, has turn-by-turn navigation, traffic information and uses the NAVTEQ database (same as Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps, Garmin, etc).

[GOB]

I knew there would be another "antennagate". Apple product launches are so predictable. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying this isn't an issue at all, but like most issues with new Apple products it's overblown. The vector graphics, UI, and turn-by-turn nav are huge improvements over the previous app. But it's true that none of that matters much if the mapping data isn't accurate.

It seems like the maps are hit or miss depending on location - most major North American cities are generally OK. I agree this is not good enough, but this too shall pass.

I'm sure Apple is dedicating a lot of resources toward improving this ASAP. To be fair to them, Google was holding back turn-by-turn nav so Apple had little choice but to go their own way. Mapping is a huge endeavour that takes many iterations to become good. I hope Apple attacks this issue with full force.

As for the impact on the stock, there may be a temporary overblown reaction but I don't see this being an issue long term. Google Maps is still available through Safari and they'll have their own app before the end of the year.

[GOB]

Is this even a good use of Apple's focus and resources? They are not a search company--that is not their core competency. Competing with the king of search is going to be costly and risky. Apple has the resources, but should they be using them to engage in a dogfight with Google on maps? Maps on the go is a major 'killer app' of smartphones, and borking your user experience is going to make a lot of people think long and hard about switching to Android.

You could say the same about Google - hardware and mobile operating systems was not their core competency. So far, they've derived very little revenue out of their Android endeavour, despite the impressive market share statistics.

You could also have said getting into the music and phone industries was not Apple's core competency - they were primarily a computer company for much of their existence. Companies branch out - they just need to be careful about it.

[indexxx]

I use my iPhone for:

Internet
Text
Stocks
Phone calls
GPS

What an epic fail on Apple's part. I can't believe they would be so damn stupid. I understand making a maps app. But it should have been near perfect before it was released. I will not be upgrading to iOS6 just because of apps. It would literally put a kink in my day of I don't have a good map app.

If I were google there would be no way in hell I would release maps to iPhone users. Why would you? Even if it was an app for a fee I still wouldn't release it.

Didn't I read someplace about Maps improving with user input, being a cloud-based app?

[andrewf]

They're all cloud-based...

The error rate will only fall so far if relying on customer input to correct. And every correction will be a negative customer experience...

[brad]

It seems like the maps are hit or miss depending on location - most major North American cities are generally OK.

I'm not sure even this is true. There are many inaccuracies in the New York City map data. See this excerpt from Anil Dash's critique:

Here in Manhattan, where I live, basic search by building names is profoundly degraded in Apple's maps search. "Bloomberg" doesn't find the Bloomberg Tower; on Google Maps it's the first result. Searching for its address "731 Lexington Avenue" yields that address on Lexington Avenue in Brooklyn. It's fine to think that perhaps I wanted the address in Bed-Stuy, but even appending "NY, NY" or "Manhattan, NY" still yields the Brooklyn address. Google maps has none of these comprehension issues. I understand this is due to Apple partnering with Tom Tom, whose maps are considered to be lower in quality than other players like Nokia, but I'm not informed enough to say with certainty whether that's the case.

Similar troubles plague the directions and routing features for drivers. I'd tried the driving maps for everywhere from the New Jersey suburbs to rural Mexico and found out-of-date road information, impossible directions and a general level of unreliability that I never recall seeing from Google maps, even when it first launched. I have only used the walking directions in Manhattan where Apple's new maps have worked fine, but in fairness, it's almost impossible to screw up walking directions when you're on the grid in Manhattan.

And then there's transit. While transit maps were the subject of some misinformation when they were originally removed during the iOS 6 beta releases, the fundamental truth is that, out of the box, Apple's maps have no transit features.

[m3s]

I wonder why Apple doesn't just tap into OpenSourceMaps, which is basically the wikipedia of maps. It's only a matter of time before OSM surpasses anything else imo as there's no way any company can keep up with a crowd source with something that big. Apple already tapped into crowd sourcing for the apps, no way they could have made all those apps themselves. There are just far too many updates and changes.. I used it exclusively on vacation in places I didn't want to buy another map, and now I use it exclusively in Europe. It has hiking trails, abandoned roads, bike trails and interesting POIs that Google/Garmin etc does not. Found lots of cool things using OSM that my Garmin maps didn't have so I don't even bother with the maps I paid for anymore.. You can download an OSM app free for iOS and you can easily fix any errors if you find them, which you cannot do on Google/Garmin/TomTom etc. Anyone can take the OSM data and make a nav app out of it.