Apple CEO 'extremely sorry' for problems with new maps
NEW YORK (AP) - Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company is "extremely sorry" for the frustration its Maps application has caused and it's doing everything it can to make it better. In the meantime, he recommended that people use competing map applications to get around.
Cook said in a letter posted online Friday that Apple "fell short" of its commitment to make the best products for its customers.
"Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard," Cook said.
The Cupertino, Calif., company released an update to its iPhone and iPad operating system last week that replaced Google Maps with Apple's own map application. But users complained that the new map software offers fewer details, lacks public transit directions and misplaces landmarks, among other problems. Users have been flocking to social media to complain and make fun of the app's glitches, which included judging landscape features by their names. The hulking Madison Square Garden arena in New York, for instance, shows up as green park space because of the word "Garden."
It's an unusual misstep for Apple, the world's most valuable company. Apple prides itself on releasing best-of-class products, but there have been mishaps -even under founder and late CEO Steve Jobs, whose dogged perfectionism is legendary. A company apology, analysts believe, would likely have happened under Jobs, too.
"I think they are clearing the air and, more importantly, clarifying why they had to do their own maps," says Tim Bajarin, a Creative Strategies analyst who's followed Apple for more than three decades. He pointed to the infamous "antennagate" issue of 2010. A problem with the iPhone 4's antenna was causing reception issues when people covered a certain spot with a bare hand. Then-CEO Jobs apologized at the time, though denied there was an antenna problem that needed fixing. Apple quickly recovered.
In his letter, Cook said Apple built a new version of its Maps product to give users what they've been asking for. The new app includes turn-by-turn directions, voice integration and a 3-D Flyover feature.
Google's map application for the iPhone did not give turn-by-turn directions or voice-guided navigation, although its version for Android devices does. Google didn't license its turn-by-turn technology to Apple.
Google, says Bajarin, simply "wouldn't give it" because the turn-by-turn feature gave devices running Google's Android software an obvious advantage over Apple. Maps and navigation are among the most-used features of smartphones.
Cook said Apple's Maps will get better as more people use the app and provide feedback. That's true for all digital maps. Google's wasn't perfect when it launched, but got better over the years as users pointed out mistakes and helped the company collect its vast trove of data used to perfect it.
"Ultimately, what (Apple) discovered early on is that Google had access to 100 million iOS users who helped them build the Google Maps database, Bajarin said. "At some point Apple had to put its foot down."
It came time, he added, for Apple to own their Maps customers - and not Google.
But now, Cook is recommending that users look at other options -including Google's map service.
"While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app," Cook wrote.
Could Apple have avoided the Maps debacle? Bajarin thinks so. After all, the company released Siri, its oft-derided virtual assistant, Siri, noting that it was still a work-in-progress and would get better over time. Customers understood.
"Had Apple and Tim Cook and team introduced the maps as a work-in-progress, they wouldn't have the backlash," he says.
Apple released the iPhone 5 last week and on Monday it said it sold more than 5 million of them in three days. Although the number is a record for any phone, it was fewer than analysts expected.
Shares of Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. slid $8.12 to $673.20 late Friday morning, amid a broader market decline.
Cook said in a letter posted online Friday that Apple "fell short" of its commitment to make the best products for its customers.
"Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard," Cook said.
The Cupertino, Calif., company released an update to its iPhone and iPad operating system last week that replaced Google Maps with Apple's own map application. But users complained that the new map software offers fewer details, lacks public transit directions and misplaces landmarks, among other problems. Users have been flocking to social media to complain and make fun of the app's glitches, which included judging landscape features by their names. The hulking Madison Square Garden arena in New York, for instance, shows up as green park space because of the word "Garden."
It's an unusual misstep for Apple, the world's most valuable company. Apple prides itself on releasing best-of-class products, but there have been mishaps -even under founder and late CEO Steve Jobs, whose dogged perfectionism is legendary. A company apology, analysts believe, would likely have happened under Jobs, too.
"I think they are clearing the air and, more importantly, clarifying why they had to do their own maps," says Tim Bajarin, a Creative Strategies analyst who's followed Apple for more than three decades. He pointed to the infamous "antennagate" issue of 2010. A problem with the iPhone 4's antenna was causing reception issues when people covered a certain spot with a bare hand. Then-CEO Jobs apologized at the time, though denied there was an antenna problem that needed fixing. Apple quickly recovered.
In his letter, Cook said Apple built a new version of its Maps product to give users what they've been asking for. The new app includes turn-by-turn directions, voice integration and a 3-D Flyover feature.
Google's map application for the iPhone did not give turn-by-turn directions or voice-guided navigation, although its version for Android devices does. Google didn't license its turn-by-turn technology to Apple.
Google, says Bajarin, simply "wouldn't give it" because the turn-by-turn feature gave devices running Google's Android software an obvious advantage over Apple. Maps and navigation are among the most-used features of smartphones.
Cook said Apple's Maps will get better as more people use the app and provide feedback. That's true for all digital maps. Google's wasn't perfect when it launched, but got better over the years as users pointed out mistakes and helped the company collect its vast trove of data used to perfect it.
"Ultimately, what (Apple) discovered early on is that Google had access to 100 million iOS users who helped them build the Google Maps database, Bajarin said. "At some point Apple had to put its foot down."
It came time, he added, for Apple to own their Maps customers - and not Google.
But now, Cook is recommending that users look at other options -including Google's map service.
"While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app," Cook wrote.
Could Apple have avoided the Maps debacle? Bajarin thinks so. After all, the company released Siri, its oft-derided virtual assistant, Siri, noting that it was still a work-in-progress and would get better over time. Customers understood.
"Had Apple and Tim Cook and team introduced the maps as a work-in-progress, they wouldn't have the backlash," he says.
Apple released the iPhone 5 last week and on Monday it said it sold more than 5 million of them in three days. Although the number is a record for any phone, it was fewer than analysts expected.
Shares of Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. slid $8.12 to $673.20 late Friday morning, amid a broader market decline.
That doppelganger stuff with Cook and Jobs is just creepy - weird beyond belief.
"A company apology, analysts believe, would likely have happened under Jobs, too."
Â
Not likely. This is unprecedented. Apple have NEVER apologized for any mishaps or problems with their kit. Did we forget Antena Gate already? A crap design for a phone antenna, signal issues because of grounding on the human hand, and what do they do? They never adminted that it was a design failure. First it was, "you are holding it wrong", then it was, "there is no problem with the antenna, but here, have this case that insulates it from your hand."
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Somewhere, Jobs is rolling in his grave, or ashes or whatever.
Â
From a happy Android user. :)
 @TheBronze All Apple did was offer free covers for the iPhone at the time that shut up those who agreed with you.  Apple responded.  They responded to their customers.  What's your problem?
 @TheBronze You are wrong. This is not "unprecedented." Exhibit A. http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/.
Exhibit B:Â http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6d3cb014-097c-11e2-a424-00144feabdc0.html#axzz27mmrE9qq
 @sorbothegeek  @TheBronze "FT.com articles are only available to registered users and subscribers."
I hear Nelson. Pointing at a Homer.
Cook needs to let go of Jobs' obsession with going after google. Droid already captured dominant marketshare from apple in just a few years, by trying to cut out youtube and google maps apple is only hurting themselves. I wonder how many will switch to droid after this... certainly it won't make anyone switch to an iphone.
 @NorthwestEconomist And not really likely to cause anyone to switch from an iphone either. If people are so stupid that they their primary criteria is a ver 1.0 app on their toy then they deserve what they get. There are plenty of map options still available even on the iphone 5. People need to simply buy what works for them based on their needs and not pay attention to what everyone else thinks they need whether it be android, winmobile or iphone.
 @SeattleJoe  @NorthwestEconomist Then why is it making such huge news and garnering an apology? Why isn't Cook telling them to go download another map app? Google maps are huge, as is youtube.Â
Â
I could list the thousands of reasons of why droids are generally superior to the iphone in every hardware, software and usually service aspect, but that's beating a dead-horse. iphone use will continue to drop.Â
 @NorthwestEconomist Wow...Talk about clueless.
Â
1. Android is not open source. Â Google controls 100% of what gets in.
2. Google's business practices stifle innovation more than any company ever in existence. Someone comes up with something grew, they copy it and give it away for free. Â
3. ALL tech companies sue each other on a daily basis.
4. All this stuff is made in China with the same working conditions.
5. Non standardized hardware and software formats? Â Â What?
6. Windows based network admins just don't understand how to think different. Â Integrating macs is super easy.
 @NorthwestEconomist  @SeattleJoe "the meantime you will keep being part of shrinking minority product base"
Â
Hmm, I hope you realize Apple is the standard and that product base is from the largest company in the world. Â Not just largest computer or smartphone company but THE BIGGEST COMPANY in the world. Â I think that qualifies as the standard.
 @NorthwestEconomist  @bkburris PS I love how you hold up the android as some bastion of security and standardization when even a rudimentary knowledge of android shows there are issues there too, which is no different from the other platforms. For instance:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_21654360/android-smartphones-at-risk-being-completely-wiped-security
and
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/over-half-android-phones-have-security-flaws-research-finds-999197
and
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/04/sorry-google-fanboys-android-security-sucks-hard-as-malware-explodes-by-700/
Aside form the dock connector, which by the way apples is a good one even if not the old usb 3 connector, the iphone is quite standardized. Or do you define standardized as everything android?
 @NorthwestEconomist  @bkburris Who ignored China? Both bkburris and I dealt with China. Did you read the comments?
 @bkburris  @NorthwestEconomist  @SeattleJoe Funny how you ignored everything except China.
Â
Keep using non-standardized and root-kit infested malware/hardware and in the meantime you will keep being part of shrinking minority product base.
 @NorthwestEconomist  @bkburris Really, this sounds more like an excuse.
1. They use flashy trendy advertising to try and get people hooked on products that are bad. Bad is your opinion not fact. If people fall for trendy advertising fine, happens every day and for android phones too.
2. fight open source. Right. The company that uses a boatload of open source is stifling it. They certainly want to have a measure of control in areas related to the open source they care about but that isn't necessarily stifling it. Apple has contributed a great deal to the open source community.
3. Stifle innovation. Sure, justify that pipe dream.
4. "use corporate profits to sue other companies for having a product in the same general physical shape and destroy consumer choice"Â There is a lot more to it than that and your oversimplification is an attempt to hide that. Not going to fly.
5. "they encourage poor working conditions in China"Â Many devices, from many companies are produced if not at the same foxcon factories then at others very close to it, including droids. Another case of pot and kettle.
6. they further the use of spyware and rootkits. Explain that.
7. they promote the use of non-standardized hardware and software formats that make everything harder to integrate. Fair enough though MS does that as well and other companies. If they do and its a problem then let them suffer the consequences in the free market. Its hard to argue that they are bad for society for making things inconvenient for IT folks.
8. Ask a network admin... Yea, apple products can be hard to integrate and for a variety of reasons. Some of it is apple and some of it is the admins. I've had experiences where admins were complaining about this or that with apple products and what they were complaining about were so incredibly simple to do that even a non apple dude like myself could do it. They disliked apple so they didn't learn apple technologies so they just sat around and complained whereas if they spent a little time learning the technologies they would be able to do things similar to other platforms. Apple can't be faulted for bigoted laziness.
So, half your arguments apply to android and other platforms, others aren't relevant, and still others are partially right but hardly worth "Apple is bad for society" claims. In short, fail.
 @NorthwestEconomist  @SeattleJoe NWE, you are all over the place on your points of view.  It's the flashy, trendy PRODUCTS that get people hooked.  They are the ones who GAVE us innovations.  The rest of your comment is just plain wrong.  Working conditions in it's China factories are better than most giving China a better standard of living although not as good as here.  But let's all sit around and blame Bush, Obama, Christians, Mormans, Jews, Blacks, Whites, Islam, the Brady Bunch, Romney, the Easter Bunny, Rush Limbaugh, FDR, deregulation, WalMart, Reagan, the UK, Russia or whoever.  Apple, who has just released a new smartphone whose features are top of the line has admitted it's MAPS program is not up to it's high standards and is busy trying to correct the situation.  Many Apple users (including me) are not as mad at the program as we are at it being released before the bugs were fixed.  As for Apple, they changed the world...not bad for a company that was on it's way out 12 years ago....deal with it.
 @SeattleJoe  @bkburris  @NorthwestEconomist The point is that Apple is bad for society. They use flashy trendy advertising to try and get people hooked on products that are bad because they fight open source, stifle innovation, use corporate profits to sue other companies for having a product in the same general physical shape and destroy consumer choice, they encourage poor working conditions in China, they further the use of spyware and rootkits and in general they promote the use of non-standardized hardware and software formats that make everything harder to integrate. Ask a network admin how they feel about trying to push anything to a mac client and they'll talk for hours about all the headaches.Â
 @SeattleJoe  @NorthwestEconomist The dumb comment was a poor attempt at humor.  The rest of your comment was 100% correct.
 @bkburris  @NorthwestEconomist Well I aim to please. But personally I'm not trying to make him/her look dumb I'm only trying to point out the problems with the arguments. Whats hard to understand is comments like "I could list the thousands of reasons of why droids are generally superior to the iphone in every hardware, software and usually service aspect". Typically the arguments presented in these situations are quite subjective and a matter of personal taste. Frankly I don't understand why people have to argue over what phone is better. Why don't they just examine their needs and go buy the phone that best matches those needs? Instead they argue about pointless stuff to fulfill their need for justification etc. They should just grow a pair and go buy a phone they like and not expect everyone else to have to have the same thing. This is something NorthwestEconomist can learn from and use to mature a little.
 @SeattleJoe  @NorthwestEconomist SeatttleJoe, stop that!  You are commenting making and making the same points I am (quoting Cool's letter etc)  I WANNA ME THE ONE WHO SHOWS NWECONOMIST HOW DUMB HE SOUNDS!!
lol-keep it up JOE
 @NorthwestEconomist  @SeattleJoe Tim Cook did tell "them to go download another app?"  From his letter today:
"While weâre improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app. "
The reason for the apology? Â Because this was an application from Apple. Â It was released with bugs in it. Â When you are Apple, you don't do that. Â
 @NorthwestEconomist 1. Its huge news because the polish on the apple is a little dull with this app.
2. As for Cook "Why isn't Cook telling them to go download another map app?"Â Did you actually read the story? As in: "But now, Cook is recommending that users look at other options -including Google's map service. "While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app," Cook wrote."
3. Youtube is not an issue.
4. Oh I'd love to hear those 1000's of reasons. The main reasons:
A. You are full of it
B. What you think is important matters to one and only one person, you. what is important for all the other consumers could be completely different, making your opinion pretty much worthless.
C. For every item you post there is a counter item that is pro iphone
Lastly it hardly matter if iphone use drops or doesn't. There are 100 million iphones out there and growing. Hardly a failing product by any means.
Â
 @NorthwestEconomist People who use iPhones are more likely to use their devices for internet related and applications than others.  Apple iPhones account for 74% of smartphone web traffic (the iPad accounts for 95% of tablet web traffic) while having 63% of the smartphone market.  The windows based phone market has 100,000 apps while Apple iOS has around 700,000.  Even Tim Cook suggested a few substitutes for MAPS in his letter.  And Apple was not going "after" Google, Apple and Google could not reach an agreement about Maps as Google refused to allow Apple to incorporate new features (namely "turn by turn') into a major upgrade.  Apple used 7,000 fewer people worldwide than Google to develop MAPS.  A major difference between Cook and Jobs is that when Apple introduced MobileME (which I liked) and it had glitches, Jobs called the MobileME team into a meeting and made his displeasure known.  He than fired the head of the group in front of everyone.  Whatever obsession Jobs had resulted in innovation that changed the world.  You might want to go for a reality check next time.
 @bkburris  @NorthwestEconomist Not sure what planet you're on. Droid is at 68% marketshare.
Â
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/worldwide-market-share-smartphones-220747882--finance.html
 @NorthwestEconomist  @bkburris True. But another viewpoint is: 1 product (iphone) from one company (apple) is competing against numerous companies licensing the OS from Google. It is also good to compare revenue. Apple's iphone business alone is greater than all of Microsoft according to one recent story. Frankly if I were a company and my smartphone was at only 1/3 of my competitors but bringing more money than all of MS I'd be pretty happy.
 @NorthwestEconomist Actually it's a 52/33 percent split with Android on top.
http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/09/28/android-better-market-share-but-iphone-apps-preferred/
On my planet I read the comment. Â I was referring to web traffic and how Apple IOS customers are more likely to use the internet and applications (the "smart" part of "smartphones" ).
" 'extremely sorry' for problems.."Â Â Â Â
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"..the more people use Apple's maps, the better it will get over time as people give feedback."
Â
it is up to the users to fix them for us.
 @al_wa How is that different from say, just about every application ever written?
 @al_wa Yes, it is.  That's how improvements happen.
They knew it was not ready, yet the released it anyway. Who do they think they are, Microsoft ? Anyway, not my problem, I can pick and choose any mapping app I like on the Android store on Google.
 @SkaBob Go ahead and choose any app from the google store.  You have 100,000 of them compared to 700,000 at the Apple store.  Most of the 100,000 are available for the iPhone. Â
 @bkburris  @SkaBob If you look around, it has been proven a couple months ago that 90% of apps that people use on the iPhone are available on Android and Windows phone marketplaces as well.
Â
700,000 apps on iPhone store doesn't mean much when a lot of those are just copies of eachother. Â
Â
It's about quality, not quantity and 100,000 is nothing to scoff at. Â Think about that number and what it really means. Â How many apps do you really have on your smartphone? Â Maybe around 0.01 % of 100,000?
 @Landshark  @SkaBob Landshark, let's follow this.  I am a diabetic.  I have downloaded 5 different apps to track Glucose levels.  Each one tracks but has different features.  There is more to choose from in a pool of 700,000 than 100,000.  BTW-the average number of apps per ios user is about 100.  I can understand how you would be use to the term "copy", being from the and-old and windoze phone environment.
 @Landshark  @bkburris  @SkaBob Yet strangely the quality argument is one of the main reasons to go with the iphone. I can't count the number people I know what ditched their android phones because of the craplications. So yea there are a lot of duplicate apps but that is call choice, the thing that PC people claim is so great in terms of buying a PC over a mac and that death-grip that apple has on the applications has the benefit of security and quality. In the end there are a lot of pros/cons for either direction and people need to be rational enough to recognize them.
 @bkburris  @SkaBob Strangely SkaBob acts as though the iphone people can't "choose any app from the apple store", including several functional map applications. Strangely ignorant comment by SkaBob.
Then PULL BACK the new software that you keep trying to put on my iPhone.......I do not want to load it........Fix the problem and try again. Or leave my mapping software alone.....it works just fine....
It's kind of funny. Â Back when they first announced (a couple months ago if I remember correctly) they were going to remove google maps and only include apple maps, it was quite clear (and was mentioned several times in the comment section of multiple news sites all over the web) that the switch to Apple Maps was going to be a failure. Â Fast forward to now and we see that, this was easily predicted.
Â
Â
Oh it's all good then, he is 'extremely' sorry LOL
My whole day just got better
@Larry*X*K It would get even better if you got rid of that Apple anchor and picked up a WinMo or Android phone. :D
 @TheBronze Try to assume too much I see, I have Nokia Lumia thank you very much
The Apple sheeple blindly follow as they crank out more secound rate crap..
@Windowseat Exactly
Glad I read this article. I don't use the map on my iphone very often, but am leaving on a 2 week road trip tomorrow. Thankful to know about the glitches before I get on the road.Â
The navigation told me to get off at Northgate from I5 south and keep left just to get back onto I5. It was quite amusing.