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Why Apple took the risk with Maps

9 points by iProject 14y ago

snogglethorpe 14y ago
This article seems to answer the wrong question. I think the reasons that Apple wants its own maps are fairly well understood, so "Why is Apple creating its own mapping infrastructure?" isn't a question that needs to be answered. The question that needs to be answered is: "Why did Apple flip the switch now, when their infrastructure is in such a poor state?" [Some people have attempted to answer this by saying "Because they need massive numbers of users to help them develop maps further," but I think that isn't really true: there's ample room for improvement to Apple's maps with no user feedback at all. I don't think they're anywhere near the point where user feedback is necessary to help point out problem areas.]
- adnrw 14y ago
  The question that needs to be answered is: "Why did Apple flip the switch now, when their infrastructure is in such a poor state?" I think John Gruber answered this question pretty well in his piece last week [1]. His answer is essentially that there's no great time to force a change like this, and time was running out for a variety of reasons. It was crunch time, and Apple needed to either jump off the Google Maps ship or try and broker a temporary deal until their solution was baked a bit more. They jumped. For what it's worth, I think they made the right decision there, but the wrong decision in the way they sold it to the public. They seem to be recanting as much as possible - see Cook's apology, their rewording of the iOS 6 Maps marketing message and the App Store section for other maps apps and so on. I think in the long run they'll be fine, just like with all the other -gate uproars, but for the moment they've given a lot of fodder to tech journalists and bloggers that probably could have been avoided. [1]: http://daringfireball.net/2012/09/timing_of_apples_map_switch http://daringfireball.net/2012/09/timing_of_apples_map_switc...
  - snogglethorpe 14y ago
    > His answer is essentially that there's no great time to force a change like this Maybe there's no "great" time, but there are certainly poor times to do it, and it looks very much like they chose one. jsz0's guess seems much more plausible: they took the decision a while ago because they thought they'd be in better shape by now, but they misjudged badly. Had they realized the state things would be in, they would have lost little by continuing to use Google maps for another year—and doing so, they could still easily achieve their long-term goals while avoiding a great deal of egg on their face (and the associated hit to their reputation as "the company that does things right").
- jsz0 14y ago
  The decision to make the switchover in iOS6 probably happened 8-10 months ago at minimum. After being shown off at WWDC, and with the need to ship iOS6 by the end of the year, their hands were tied. I think they just under estimated how much work could be completed in this 8-10 month period. It would have been very interesting to see a comparison between the WWDC beta and final release. Too late for that now though. It would have at least given us some idea how much progress they were making.
ddw 14y ago
tl;dr, but isn't the bulleted list a list of what Google Now does?
spinchange 14y ago
Seen from the outside, the “downgrade” from Google Maps to Apple’s own maps might seem like a dumb move. But it’s, in fact, evidence of Apple’s long-term bet on service platforms as strategic control points. In order to secure its own long-term prosperous future, Apple chose to risk alienating users with some imperfect maps in iOS 6, a decision it has publically acknowledged with an apology from CEO Tim Cook. Getting your users lost so you can find/secure some future market dominance is strategy tax pure and simple. Nothing about it is good for anyone except the largest corporation on earth who is simultaneously trying to reduce competition in the smart phone market by suing their most successful competitors for billions over look and feel. The proper question is why or when did Apple decide that its long term corporate strategy was more important than delivering finished or remotely complete products. When did they start shipping iStrategyTax instead?
- fleitz 14y ago
  Because switching later is worse, apple will still launch the same product but a year from now google maps will be that much better.

9 points by iProject 14y ago

This article seems to answer the wrong question. I think the reasons that Apple wants its own maps are fairly well understood, so "Why is Apple creating its own mapping infrastructure?" isn't a question that needs to be answered. The question that needs to be answered is: "Why did Apple flip the switch now, when their infrastructure is in such a poor state?" [Some people have attempted to answer this by saying "Because they need massive numbers of users to help them develop maps further," but I think that isn't really true: there's ample room for improvement to Apple's maps with no user feedback at all. I don't think they're anywhere near the point where user feedback is necessary to help point out problem areas.]

adnrw 14y ago
The question that needs to be answered is: "Why did Apple flip the switch now, when their infrastructure is in such a poor state?" I think John Gruber answered this question pretty well in his piece last week [1]. His answer is essentially that there's no great time to force a change like this, and time was running out for a variety of reasons. It was crunch time, and Apple needed to either jump off the Google Maps ship or try and broker a temporary deal until their solution was baked a bit more. They jumped. For what it's worth, I think they made the right decision there, but the wrong decision in the way they sold it to the public. They seem to be recanting as much as possible - see Cook's apology, their rewording of the iOS 6 Maps marketing message and the App Store section for other maps apps and so on. I think in the long run they'll be fine, just like with all the other -gate uproars, but for the moment they've given a lot of fodder to tech journalists and bloggers that probably could have been avoided. [1]: http://daringfireball.net/2012/09/timing_of_apples_map_switch http://daringfireball.net/2012/09/timing_of_apples_map_switc...
- snogglethorpe 14y ago
  > His answer is essentially that there's no great time to force a change like this Maybe there's no "great" time, but there are certainly poor times to do it, and it looks very much like they chose one. jsz0's guess seems much more plausible: they took the decision a while ago because they thought they'd be in better shape by now, but they misjudged badly. Had they realized the state things would be in, they would have lost little by continuing to use Google maps for another year—and doing so, they could still easily achieve their long-term goals while avoiding a great deal of egg on their face (and the associated hit to their reputation as "the company that does things right").
jsz0 14y ago
The decision to make the switchover in iOS6 probably happened 8-10 months ago at minimum. After being shown off at WWDC, and with the need to ship iOS6 by the end of the year, their hands were tied. I think they just under estimated how much work could be completed in this 8-10 month period. It would have been very interesting to see a comparison between the WWDC beta and final release. Too late for that now though. It would have at least given us some idea how much progress they were making.

ddw 14y ago

tl;dr, but isn't the bulleted list a list of what Google Now does?

spinchange 14y ago

Seen from the outside, the “downgrade” from Google Maps to Apple’s own maps might seem like a dumb move. But it’s, in fact, evidence of Apple’s long-term bet on service platforms as strategic control points. In order to secure its own long-term prosperous future, Apple chose to risk alienating users with some imperfect maps in iOS 6, a decision it has publically acknowledged with an apology from CEO Tim Cook. Getting your users lost so you can find/secure some future market dominance is strategy tax pure and simple. Nothing about it is good for anyone except the largest corporation on earth who is simultaneously trying to reduce competition in the smart phone market by suing their most successful competitors for billions over look and feel. The proper question is why or when did Apple decide that its long term corporate strategy was more important than delivering finished or remotely complete products. When did they start shipping iStrategyTax instead?

fleitz 14y ago
Because switching later is worse, apple will still launch the same product but a year from now google maps will be that much better.