Mikey Campbell
A New York Times report on Friday says Apple's new iOS Maps app and corresponding service is another casualty of the company's lack of focus in offering reliable internet-based services, and reveals the original iPhone wasn't planned to have mapping software until mere weeks before its debut.
The publication cites a former Apple iPhone software engineer familiar with the matter who said late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs requested a mapping solution be included with the original iPhone "just weeks" before it was scheduled to be unveiled in 2007, alluding that the service was more of an afterthought than a planned feature.
According to the source, two engineers were tasked with creating a maps app for the original iPhone's presentation and the company ultimately struck a deal with Google to use the internet search giant's mapping data.
Executives at Apple were reportedly surprised by the popularity of the Google Maps-powered app, and quickly became leery of the large amounts of user metrics data Google now had access to, said an unnamed former Apple executive.
The anecdote serves to paint a larger picture of Apple's reported lack of attention to building internet services that match the level of polish seen in its hardware. The Times claims "numerous interviews" with former Apple employees "made it clear that Mr. Jobs and other executives rarely paid as much attention to Internet services as they did to the devices for which Apple is best known."
Citing various Apple attempts at such services, including the much-maligned MobileMe launch and now-defunct Ping social music network, the publication noted an apparent inability to make an internet-based product that worked.
“I always felt if you had to name an Achilles’ heel at Apple, it’s Internet services,†said former Apple product designer Andrew Borovsky, who previously worked on MobileMe. “It’s clearly an issue.â€
Creating an internet service from the ground up is no easy task, even for a company as large as Apple which had already seen success with iTunes. Former Apple executives claim the disappointing performance of MobileMe was a "symptom of a lack of appreciation" by company execs, including Jobs, of the difference between an online service and an online store. Tantamount to the arguable lack of foresight was the iPhone maker's secrecy, which wouldn't allow services like MobileMe to be thoroughly vetted before launch.
As for the new iOS Maps app, another former executive said colleagues still with Apple are "embarrassed by it," claiming the current problems are due to the merging of map data coming from a variety of sources. Some of this data is said to be flawed.
Google Maps' building data (left) compared to same view on Apple's Maps (right).
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday apologized to customers dissatisfied with Maps in iOS 6, trying to stem the flood of criticism targeting the new app's shortcomings.
“I think there’s a bigger question of whether hardware companies can be services companies,†said Leslie Grandy, a former Apple manager responsible for the Online Apple Store.
It appears Apple has little time to rectify the situation, the publication said, as smartphones become increasingly reliant on internet service, an area where Android maker Google has the "home-turf advantage."
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454 Comments
Lol So apple struggles out of the gate with their map app which shows obvious potential for being the best app for maps once they fix a few things. Googles already copying in their own misguided way (a 45 degree bitmap is still a bitmap). And then to try to lambast all of apples Internet services because of this? Laughably reaching. Trying a bit too hard. Mobile me had launch trouble because of how ambitious it was and quickly became known for being awesome. Not a negative. Ping sims never was. And that's ok. Apple is just used to making everything they do perfect and desirable. So when ping turned out to not be all that wanted, they shuttered it. Much like google with its many experiments. And it's not like apple killed an ecosystem. Zune anyone? "plays4sure" yeah right... In fact, from MobileMe to iTunes, to iCloud, apple seems to "get" Internet services like few companies do. Apples headed in the right direction with maps. They'll have it in top form inside a year. That's saying a lot considering googles head start. Here's hoping apple goes into the search business as well.
So far using Maps in my area seems to be ok when I looked for things. It pinned them correctly. But we'll see I suppose the more I use to see how it performs. It can only go up from here with future updates.
Woah! Apple has been in the internet services space longer than most players out there today, going as far back as the free iTools. Microsoft had Hotmail which was basically email and IM, Apple had the email, personal web pages, was in the cloud (iDisk) long before many others. Sure, they have had a couple of hiccups along the way with the launch of MobileMe and now the new Maps perhaps should have been left to bake in the oven a little longer (although, as this website has been pointing out the issues with Maps have been exaggerated, to say the least, and in some cases fabricated). None of this justifies any conclusion that Apple either is not good at or not dedicated to Internet services. As to the comments about Maps on the iPhone, I recall reading from the Apple/Samsung litigation that iPhone%u2019s design was completely overhauled only months before it was unveiled. But even so, the iPhone was only unveiled because of all the regulatory approvals it had to go through before launch, which would have outed the device months before Apple had planned to launch it. So, in fact, it is a bit misleading to call Maps on the iPhone an %u201Cafterthought%u201D just because work may have begun only a few weeks before it was unveiled. Apple has a reputation for excellence, and deservedly so. It seems people have come to expect a lot from Apple and then magnify the mishaps when, as Tim Cook acknowledged in his open letter, Apple has not met its own exacting standards.
Sorry, edited this in Pages before pasting into the web form; second last paragraph should read:
As to the comments about Maps on the iPhone, I recall reading from the Apple/Samsung litigation that iPhone's design was completely overhauled only months before it was unveiled. But even so, the iPhone was only unveiled because of all the regulatory approvals it had to go through before launch, which would have outed the device months before Apple had planned to launch it. So, in fact, it is a bit misleading to call Maps on the iPhone an "afterthought" just because work may have begun only a few weeks before it was unveiled.
Am I the only one who thinks the NYT's version of journalism consists of kicking a man when he's down. I have to roll my eyes with each new "unnamed source"