Here Is Why Apple Got Into The Maps Business

However, there is more to this than you might know. Here are two interesting post explaining why Apple released Maps in its current state.Spencer Michels did an article for PSB Newsabout Apple’s Maps, Here is what he had to say:[quote] That’s lured more companies into the lucrative business of using digital maps, because there’s money to be made. Until September, almost all those phone maps were supplied by Google.But when Apple introduced the new iPhone 5, it replaced Google Maps with its own and learned quickly that map making is fraught with peril.Immediately, users complained they got lost. Some landmarks were out of place, directions were misleading. Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized, but, still, satirists had a field day with the misdirections.

The stakes in the mapping game are high for Apple and others, since a lot of advertising revenue depends on knowing the location of the phone and promoting something nearby, a restaurant or a hotel, to the user.[/quote]

Watch Seeing the World in a Different Way Through Digital Maps on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

 

The second article from  Korntra on Counternotion – Apple Maps: The FAQ  is quite old, however its very interesting.

Here is his take on Apple’s Maps:

[quote] Q: But Google Maps has been around for the better part of a decade.

A: Yes, mapping is hard.

Q: Then why did Apple kick Google Maps off the iOS platform? Wouldn’t Apple have been better off offering Google Maps even while it was building its own map app? Shouldn’t Apple have waited?

A: Waited for what? For Google to strengthen its chokehold on a key iOS service? Apple has recognized the significance of mobile mapping and acquired several mapping companies, IP assets and talent in the last few years. Mapping is indeed one of the hardest of mobile services, involving physical terrestrial and aerial surveying, data acquisition, correction, tile making and layer upon layer of contextual info married to underlying data, all optimized to serve often under trying network conditions. Unfortunately, like dialect recognition or speech synthesis (think Siri), mapping is one of those technologies that can’t be fully incubated in a lab for a few years and unleashed on several hundred million users in more than a 100 countries in a “mature” state. Thousands of reports from individuals around the world, for example, have helped Google correct countless mapping failures over the last half decade. Without this public exposure and help in the field, a mobile mapping solution like Apple’s stands no chance.[/quote]

 

Sources:  PSB News, Counternotion