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I'm confused - can someone explain to me the benefit of Apple developing it's own mapping software? Apple is not full of PhD's studying problems for the sake of
by mercuryrising 14y ago
I'm confused - can someone explain to me the benefit of Apple developing it's own mapping software? Apple is not full of PhD's studying problems for the sake of it, they are a collection of people creating products that push their bar higher and higher. They make commissions from digital goods being purchased on their devices. This is why I'm confused. They don't have computer science PhD's to throw at challenging problems. They could hire tons of PhDs, but Apple hasn't really done that yet, they design something pretty good, package it up nicely, and sell it.
Google has a very attainable goal (or cause) for it's mapping project (at least that's what it seems from the outside) - the creation of self driving cars. Regardless of their initial motivation, looking back in ten years it will seem like Google wanted self driving cars, and Google created awesome mapping to provide the infrastructure for their cars.
Apple isn't going to create 'Apple cars' that drive around and take pictures of everything, will they?
How much is their to gain in them creating their own mapping software, what is their motivation for doing it?
- bo1024 14y agoIt's all about the data. The more you know, the better you can serve your users. But to get data on people, you need people using your products.
- fpgeek 14y agoUm, what data can Apple get from iOS 6 Maps that they couldn't get previously? Remember, they wrote the iOS 5 Maps app, Google was just the information source. They could (and did) have gathered whatever data they wanted. It is quite possible they didn't want some data that they should have gathered, but that's a different issue entirely.
- taligent 14y agoBecause maps are a core use case of a smartphone hence Apple needs a good implementation.
- skeletonjelly 14y agoThat's not a strong argument for them. They could just stick with Google Maps
- nicholassmith 14y agoWell, as no one knows why they didn't sign a new licensing agreement with Google the only thing we know is that they couldn't stick with Google Maps, for better or worse.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- rahoulb 14y agoMaps is a core function of their flagship product, that used to depend upon a competitor who (for whatever, currently unknown, reason) would not licence them access to a key capability on that function (turn by turn navigation).