Apple Maps

Well, the much anticipated iOS 6 is here. It brought in a lot of changes (beautification) to the general user interface and it is swell. They were going to bring beautification to the Maps application as well and had demoed how the new Maps is going to look. Understandably, everyone was eagerly awaiting the same.

The rumble of disappointment grew louder and louder as the 19th Sep progressed. Many users found error in the rendering of satellite pictures and still others found their cities missing. In my own case, the entire street that I live on, does not seem to be listed at all.

Just to render some perspective to the situation, the same street, was missing in the Google Maps App two and a half years ago. Kudos to Google for having improved their app so much over this period of time. 

Now, any cloud based app requires usage over the cloud by many for all issues surrounding the service to be ironed out. There has always been a hue and cry about Siri when it launched, with many describing the issues that they faced (thankfully they had the prevision to release it as a Beta). The same issue was faced when Mobile Me was released and Apple eventually pulled the plug on the same and upgraded to iCloud. Many forget that Mobile Me was the reason iCloud seemed to just work!

I myself have written a lot of hate mails to Google about the shortcomings of Google Maps in India, assuming that everything was perfect in the US, only to find out later that such problems do in fact occur and upon being reported they are corrected.

This has become a classic case with Apple, getting slippered after a new cloud based app roll-out.

So what is the issue now? Apple has introduced a product that does not have as much run-time on field as Google has had. Therefore there are more holes in the Apple product as opposed to Google. Oh, yes Google has holes, on a recent trip by road to certain interior parts of India, Google Maps suddenly showed me to be in Czech republic. It corrected itself a few minutes later, but well. Apple will need a lot of run-time to compile more data from various users and improve itself which will happen over the course of the next year.

While some of the whining is over public transportation not being mapped and so on, which I frankly feel is just a matter of adding another layer; the more critical failing will be the lack of sufficient business listings across the world.

Now, Google being in the search business means that they have an interface on the net, where business owners can go and list their businesses which can then be reflected on the Maps. This is the main tool that helps update their Maps application and makes it highly relevant in all geographies. Apple is not in the search business, hence they need to figure out, how that are going to get this data. This area is going to be harder to plug and more difficult to work around.

Also, Apple tends to focus on their primary markets US, Europe and China. What about plugging data in other geographies? It is going to be a monumental challenge! When an American with an iPhone travels to India, he is going to expect it to function just as it would in the US. Being able to meet those expectations is going to require more on-field resources and data gathering. That is going to prove to be a road-block at the moment. I wish to see how they plan to work their way around it!

What is the solution?

Buy more geography specific mapping companies.

Nokia seems to claim that theirs is the most comprehensive mapping solution, more so that than Google; well, buy Nokia; they will sell out for pocket change.

Double down and setup ground level teams in every country where they have operations and make the maps app really robust over the next 3 years. A very painful and arduous task which will pay dividends in the long run.