Apple released a software update for the iPhone that, among other
changes, replaces the Google maps with Apple's maps. Early reviews
say it is attractive but suffers from holes and glitches.
Millions of users of the Apple iPhone may soon find themselves
losing touch with an old friend: Google's maps.
On Wednesday, Apple released a software update for the iPhone
that, among other changes, replaces the Google maps that have been
on the phone since 2007 with Apple's own maps. The early feedback
from reviewers and early adopters of the new software is that it is
attractive but suffers from holes and glitches.
For example, some have found that searches for an in-town
destination can pull up an entirely different city, and there is no
built-in information about public transportation.
Apple's previous versions of iOS, its mobile software system,
included a Maps app that was made by Apple but powered by Google's
mapping service. In iOS 6, the latest version, Apple has replaced
the old app with a new version that uses mapping data collected or
purchased by Apple itself.
The company has been preparing for this change for a while, as
Google, with its Android software for phones, has come to be more of
a competitor than a partner. Over the past three years, Apple has
acquired three mapping companies.
The new Apple-powered Maps app includes some features that were
not in the old version, like spoken turn-by-turn directions and
Flyover, a feature that shows 3-D models of buildings in major
cities.
The colors in the Apple maps sparkle a bit more; zooming and
panning is faster. Yelp, a popular review site for businesses and
restaurants, supplies data for location searches. And iPhone users
can ask Siri, the voice-powered assistant, to tell them how to get
somewhere.
But because Apple is relatively new to mapping, it has a lot more
work to do before its service is as robust as Google's.
Anil Dash, an entrepreneur in New York, criticized Apple and its
maps on his blog, writing that Apple had "used their platform
dominance to privilege their own app over a competitor's offering,
even though it's a worse experience for users." He complained that a
search for "Bloomberg" had failed to turn up the company's
headquarters, and a search for an address on Lexington Avenue in the
New York borough of Manhattan had pulled up a street in the borough
of Brooklyn.
Trenton Fuller, an iPhone and iPad owner and a computer systems
administrator in Louisville, Kentucky, said he liked the look of the
Apple maps but had found similar problems.
Mr. Fuller said he had done a search for Heine Brothers, a
popular coffee shop in Louisville, but had substituted "Bros." The
map service could not find the shop until he typed its name in
precisely. Google Maps, in contrast, was able to find it, even with
spelling variations. And the Apple service came up with an
inaccurate street address for Mr. Fuller's office.
"Not being able to find businesses or points of interest without
spelling a name 100 percent perfectly could cause some grief," Mr.
Fuller said. "That problem, combined with inaccurate street
addresses, could be superfrustrating."
Despite the problems, Mr. Fuller said he did not regret his
decision to order the iPhone 5, which will come with the new
software installed when it is released on Friday.
For public transit schedules, Apple gives the option for
customers to tap on a tab inside the Maps app and download a third-
party transit app for a city, though the quality of these may vary.
Google could build its own maps app for Apple devices and submit
it to Apple for approval. It declined to say whether it would do so.
Brian McClendon, vice president for engineering for maps at Google,
would say only that the company wanted to make its maps available to
everyone.
All iPhone users will continue to be able to reach Google's
mapping service through a mobile Web browser, a method that is
somewhat clunky, compared with an app. Users who choose not to
upgrade to the new Apple operating system or buy a new iPhone will
be able to keep using Google's maps, and there is no indication that
either Google or Apple will stop providing that service. The Google
Maps Web site prompts users to create a Google Maps icon that
resides alongside app icons on the iPhone screen.
As more people use Apple's maps, the company is likely to learn
how to improve them. There are 400 million devices running iOS, so
it may only be a small matter of time before millions of people have
the new maps. Over the next year or two, Apple's maps should become
as good as Google's for most people, said Scott Rafer, chief
executive of Lumatic, a company that has developed a transit app for
iPhones.
"What no one's talking about is map usage is a lot more important
than any of this crazy software" that Google's maps may have, Mr.
Rafer said.
Google executives are reminding people that Google is coming to
the fight with years of expertise and a lot of data.
Google, which has offered maps since 2005, has taken photos of
streets in 3,000 cities for its Street View service, photos that
help it ensure the accuracy of its maps. And it has information
about one million transit stops around the world, including things
like photos of the inside of Tokyo subway stations and directions on
which exit to use.
"It takes a long time and effort to figure out how to do this
right," Mr. McClendon said. "Experience is important."
On the same day that Apple released iOS 6, Google introduced some
small updates to its Android maps, like the ability to see a list of
places that a user had previously searched for on his computer.
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, a technology research
company, said Apple was clearly not the market leader in maps,
lagging behind Google and Nokia. But Mr. Gartenberg said he did not
think most consumers would be bothered by what was missing in
Apple's maps and that on the whole, they would be more pleased by
the addition of turn-by-turn navigation.
"The granularity of how good mapping is on one platform versus
another doesn't seem like it's going to matter a lot to consumers,"
he said.
