7 ms·

Nokia Has Better Maps Than Apple and Maybe Even Google

91 points by susanhi 14y ago

__chrismc 14y ago
If Nokia has (supposedly) better map data than Google, how much money could be made by licensing that data? Alternatively, how much could be made by creating a map application for the major mobile platforms, and sell it to the consumer direct? (bundled free with Windows Phone, no doubt) Probably not as much as a licensing deal, but still no small amount.
- molmalo 14y ago
  According to this [1], they made € 1 Billion in 2010. You could search for updated info though. Considering that Nokia paid $ 8.1 billion for Navteq, they really need to make money with that. A few years ago, Google used licensed data from Navteq. But I don't know if that's the case anymore. Looking at the ToS in maps.google.com, there's no trace of Navteq anymore, but there's mention of them in localized versions of Google Maps. As an example: UK: http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/help/terms_maps.html http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/help/terms_maps.html Canada: http://www.google.com/intl/en_ca/help/terms_maps.html http://www.google.com/intl/en_ca/help/terms_maps.html Argentina: http://www.google.com/intl/es_ar/help/terms_maps.html http://www.google.com/intl/es_ar/help/terms_maps.html Navteq is still there, but maybe, it's just that they forgot to update the ToS (Lazy lawyers?). - [1] http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/NAVTEQ-1-Billion-Sales-in-2010_a2765.html http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/NAVTEQ-1-Billion-Sales-in-201...
- Spearchucker 14y ago
  Nokia are starting to make inroads into both the consumer [1] and enterprise space [2]. This is my personal opinion only - but I imagine this will only get bigger for them. [1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/amazon_google_map_bmrush/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/amazon_google_map_bm... [2]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/01/nokia_oracle_maps_deal/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/01/nokia_oracle_maps_de...
- archangel_one 14y ago
  > how much money could be made by licensing that data? Navteq still do license map data. But it's not as profitable as all that; IIRC they weren't breaking even when Nokia took them over. This seems fairly common in that industry; Ordnance Survey (who aren't fully commercial, but the same concept applies) are heavily supplemented by public money, for example. It's presumably even more expensive to do all the capture for Street View type data. > Alternatively, how much could be made by creating a map application for the major mobile platforms, and sell it to the consumer direct? That seems like a pretty good idea to me, although I doubt it's going to dig them out of a €1.5bn hole. Still, Nokia don't have a lot to lose at this point, although I feel like they're still in denial about their recent lack of competitiveness in smartphones.
  - gman99 14y ago
    €1.5bn hole? Last I checked they had €4.2bn in the bank? http://press.nokia.com/2012/07/19/nokia-corporation-q2-2012-interim-report/ http://press.nokia.com/2012/07/19/nokia-corporation-q2-2012-... Edit: €1.3bn loss in Q1, €800ml loss last quarter. I guess that's what you meant. Still, not a "hole"... just driving straight into one :)
    - archangel_one 14y ago
      Sorry, probably not the right metaphor to use really. From the article, it suggested that division of Nokia was losing €1.5bn annually, and I don't think selling map software to mobile phone owners would make that much when there are already plenty of free (beer) alternatives.
hayksaakian 14y ago
Are they stealth or something 'cause I've certainly never seen them
- mempko 14y ago
  if you used mapquest, yahoo, bing, now amazon, any garmin device or any in car navigation system, you have seen them.
mddw 14y ago
Maybe better maps, but no street view, which is kind of a deal breaker for me as an "urban pedestrian".
- GFischer 14y ago
  Street View is amazing, but it's currently not available in my country (Uruguay) nor neighbouring Argentina, and it's not available in any region of Brazil that I've visited (I hear it's now available in Sao Paulo and Rio).
mtgx 14y ago
According to Ars, it's not, and Bing Maps seems to be the worst of the bunch: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/10/replacing-ios-6-maps-hands-on-with-mapquest-bing-waze-google-nokia/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/10/replacing-ios-6-maps-ha...
- arrrg 14y ago
  Uhm, they only say that they couldn’t really see any difference between Nokia Maps and Google Maps. To me that’s a ringing endorsement. Oh, and they were focusing on features, not the accuracy of the map data – which they also did not test in any particularly systematic way. This article doesn’t tell you at all whether or not Nokia's map data is better or worse than Google’s. It can’t because it doesn’t want to.
- daliusd 14y ago
  Not really. Nokia Maps is more than Nokia Maps on iOS. Downloadable/Offline maps is killer feature in Nokia Symbian/Meego phones (at least for travelling person from Europe). I guess the same solution is used in Lumia phones as well. Since I don't want to buy Lumia phone when there will be no Symbians anymore I hope Android will have proper offline maps or EU will force reasonable price for data connection across Europe (what it actually does gradually).
  - omaranto 14y ago
    I'm not familiar with Nokia Maps at all. How is its offline feature better than Google Maps On Android's offline feature? (You call it "proper" suggesting to me that you consider better than the way Google Maps on Android does it.) I don't have a smart phone, just a WiFi only Android tablet and I've fund the offline maps features in Google Maps perfectly adequate.
    - daliusd 14y ago
      OK. I don't have any modern Android. I believe offline maps for Android is pretty new function. Right? I think in offline maps for Android you can download only selected region. Meanwhile with Nokia maps I can download map for individual country or state (in case of US).
berkut 14y ago
http://maps.nokia.com/3D/ http://maps.nokia.com/3D/
- wheels 14y ago
  Near my apartment Nokia's 3D maps are markedly better that Google Earth. Google only picks up that some of the buildings are 3D and they appear much taller than others since the perspective changes as you move, whereas Nokia gets things right: http://maps.nokia.com/52.492296,13.4478423,19.02,359.97,0,3d.day http://maps.nokia.com/52.492296,13.4478423,19.02,359.97,0,3d... https://maps.google.de/maps?q=Kiefholzstr.+9,+Berlin&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=52.492328,13.447785&spn=0.00099,0.002411&sll=52.506844,13.424732&sspn=0.503197,1.234589&t=f&hnear=Kiefholzstra%C3%9Fe+9,+12435+Berlin&z=19&ecpose=52.49229833,13.44778488,215.92,0.003,1.057,0 https://maps.google.de/maps?q=Kiefholzstr.+9,+Berlin&hl=... Notice how in the Google maps version the building that's bottom-center appears to be large and 3D, whereas my building seems small. In practice they're about the same height -- both 5 story apartment buildings.
  - davidw 14y ago
    OTOH, with the Nokia link, I get "Sorry. For now, 3D Maps only works with these browsers" and a picture of Piazza San Marco and the Canal Grande in Venice. That's probably nicer looking than your apartment, so we'll be charitable and say that Nokia wins anyway.
    - snogglethorpe 14y ago
      Hmm, I'm running firefox but the nokia page still gives me the error message...
      - archangel_one 14y ago
        I'm running Chrome and get it also; I assume from the way they're listing operating systems it must be Linux that they think is the problem. Goodness knows why though, since the little play button shows me a HTML5 video and I'm pretty sure I saw a WebGL maps demo from Nokia just the other day?
linyu 14y ago
Google should buy Nokia then, for it's maps.
- daliusd 14y ago
  I wouldn't mind but Maps are not worth that much I guess - having in mind that Google has its own maps. Google already has Motorola what makes Nokia less attractive (e.g. patent portfolio).
- potatolicious 14y ago
  I'd actually rather Microsoft buy them. God help us if Google becomes the sole provider of (competent) mapping services.
- GFischer 14y ago
  As molmalo said, they used to license Nokia's maps: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4611625 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4611625
aroberge 14y ago
I'm curious as to how they found my exact address when I turned on the locator feature. Also, I wonder why Canada is not listed as a country for terms of use. Perhaps because the 3d features are not available here?...
kalleboo 14y ago
Nokia don't have perfect worldwide coverage though, they have nothing in Japan aside from outlines. (understandable as Nokia have zero market presence or ambition in Japan, but no good as an acquire)
- hkmurakami 14y ago
  That's not entirely true, since Navteq has a strong presence in the auto industry in Japan.
lampe 14y ago
the problem with nokia is not it software. The maps are good and other software too. BUT smartphones are about the OS these days! and Symbian(i loved the old s60 version on my ngage) is dead... and windows mobile dont got the big thirdparty app market like android and ios got! Yeah nokia has great maps but its like with Opera: "Opera the worlds best browser that no one uses"
- toyg 14y ago
  no one in broadband-happy Western countries, no. In countries where 56k speeds are still the norm, Opera rules the mobile space (in a way, they really are "the cloud browser"). Unfortunately, ruling the low-end is a bad place to be in IT, especially in the fashion-influenced mass-consumer space. No wonder they're trying hard to be acquired at the moment.
  - lampe 14y ago
    on my Android i use Opera too! dont get me wrong i really like opera. but on the Desktop i dont know why but at this moment Chrome is for me my favourite browser. everytime when opera gets a new major release i test the version and opera next too.
userulluipeste 14y ago
No, it doesn't! At least not better then Google. For example streets marked in Doha, Qatar's capital, are totally outdated in Nokia maps - years old and inconsistent even with their own satellite view: http://maps.nokia.com/25.2835829,51.5508221,18,0,0,hybrid.day http://maps.nokia.com/25.2835829,51.5508221,18,0,0,hybrid.da...
- ernesth 14y ago
  From what I see, google has the same map for this crossroad, but a different satellite view.
  - userulluipeste 14y ago
    Yeah, Nokia updated it's map in last two months. At the beginning of August it matched it's satellite view, and the funny part was that I relied on that map! I preferred Nokia maps because I found them to be more clear. But then on the spot I was like current Apple users with their Apple maps...
toyg 14y ago
Nokia has (or rather had) Better-Many-Things, and absolutely no idea what to do with them. They keep cutting trees but there's nobody in the forest to hear them fall, because they put huge signs all around saying "WE DON'T REALLY LIKE CUTTING TREES". A Microsoft (or why not, Facebook) acquisition is basically their only hope at this point, bar miracles.
- jpkeisala 14y ago
  Microsoft is not buying Nokia. They think it's better make their own (zune) phone. How hard can it be?
- gcb 14y ago
  my thoughts exactly while reading this article. Great. nice maps. how do i use them? and I was using a nokia handset overseas for the last month! only thing i could put there was an old version of google maps for s60.
twoodfin 14y ago
My problem with Apple's maps hasn't been the quality of the maps but the quality of the search. I was looking for the Sea Dog Brew Pub last night. When I put "seadog" into iOS 6 maps, no result, despite it being only a few miles away. Google Maps nailed it. Both maps had a record of the POI, but only Google's had the basic smarts to handle the missing space. More complicated examples are even worse for Apple, abs typically effortless for Google. Unless Nokia has all that fuzzy match/page rank DNA, I'm not sure simply more accurate maps will help.
- acdha 14y ago
  I ran into an even worse Apple problem: addresses with fractions will be parsed after the / - e.g. 1234 1/2 6th Street will be displayed at the correct location for "2 6th Street"! (Interestingly, Yelp displayed that restaurant correctly using the iOS 6 map widget so they appear to do their own geocoding) That said, I've also found multiple cases where Apple is better: e.g. around here there's a diner chain with 5 locations. Searching for their name with Google Maps on iOS 5 or maps.google.com will show only one hit 20 miles away for their business office. iOS correctly finds the actual restaurants and the first hit is the one 5 miles away. From my perspective, it felt like Google Maps got much worse about a year ago – but mostly on mobile.
- potatolicious 14y ago
  I've pretty much given up on search on iOS6. It seems more often than not entering an address like "123 Spruce" will take me to some landmark/town relating to the street name, a few states away. I can count the number of times the search actually picked up on the fact that I entered an address on a single hand. Apple, this is me trying to make things as easy for your craptastic search as possible. I've taken the trouble to type the number and the street name. If you can't take it from there, what the hell. I've also had the map place things in hilariously wrong places. These are shops with addresses (addresses that are correct on the detail pane!) that would somehow end up a block away or on the wrong side of the street. Worse yet, I've been redirect to a few no-longer-existent Starbucks by now. This is in Manhattan too, far from an obscure location.
  - 14y ago
chayesfss 14y ago
Nokia sounds like it has great maps, also LOVE the layout of m.theatlantic.com. First article in a long time I could actually look at without feeling like I have ADHD. I'm going to start trying to add a m. in front of domains I read!
acdha 14y ago
Depends on where you live - around Washington DC, it's Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps, Apple (at some distance below) and then a huge gap before Bing, Nokia and MapQuest round out the low end of the results. I rather strongly suspect that the main consequences of Apple's move will be fragmentation as people adapt to the service which offers the best local coverage for them
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
njx 14y ago
Because they own Navteq
Tomis02 14y ago
Nokia finger race: http://vimeo.com/28240021 http://vimeo.com/28240021
joelrunyon 14y ago
Here's the non-mobile link -> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/the-forgotten-mapmaker-nokia-has-better-maps-than-apple-and-maybe-even-google/263150/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/the-fo...
nekojima 14y ago
I'm disappointed to see that the earth maps from Google and Nokia of my town are three years old. I saw the copyright 2012 and had heard they'd been updated through a Google posting a few weeks ago. But checking a few new construction developments, which cars are in my parents' & their neighbours driveways and its no later than June 2009.
rm999 14y ago
I wonder if Apple has lost more value from the map debacle than Nokia's entire marketcap. Apple's stock is down ~25-30B dollars since the the iphone 5 came out, and Nokia is worth 10B.
cmccabe 14y ago
The internet has a short attention span, I guess. Nokia bought NAVTEQ for 8 billion dollars back in 2007. They sure ought to have good maps, after that! NAVTEQ might be receiving map data from many commercial fleets of trucks, but Google is receiving map data from anyone with an Android phone. I think GOOG has this one covered. When Nokia finishes its slow motion car crash, and they start auctioning off the company's assets, they will easily find a willing buyer for NAVTEQ. Both Apple and Microsoft will probably be interested. I don't know if it will command 8 billion next time around, but it will definitely be worth something (unless they make the mistake of mismanaging it into the ground before the end arrives.)

91 points by susanhi 14y ago

If Nokia has (supposedly) better map data than Google, how much money could be made by licensing that data? Alternatively, how much could be made by creating a map application for the major mobile platforms, and sell it to the consumer direct? (bundled free with Windows Phone, no doubt) Probably not as much as a licensing deal, but still no small amount.

molmalo 14y ago
According to this [1], they made € 1 Billion in 2010. You could search for updated info though. Considering that Nokia paid $ 8.1 billion for Navteq, they really need to make money with that. A few years ago, Google used licensed data from Navteq. But I don't know if that's the case anymore. Looking at the ToS in maps.google.com, there's no trace of Navteq anymore, but there's mention of them in localized versions of Google Maps. As an example: UK: http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/help/terms_maps.html http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/help/terms_maps.html Canada: http://www.google.com/intl/en_ca/help/terms_maps.html http://www.google.com/intl/en_ca/help/terms_maps.html Argentina: http://www.google.com/intl/es_ar/help/terms_maps.html http://www.google.com/intl/es_ar/help/terms_maps.html Navteq is still there, but maybe, it's just that they forgot to update the ToS (Lazy lawyers?). - [1] http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/NAVTEQ-1-Billion-Sales-in-2010_a2765.html http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/NAVTEQ-1-Billion-Sales-in-201...
Spearchucker 14y ago
Nokia are starting to make inroads into both the consumer [1] and enterprise space [2]. This is my personal opinion only - but I imagine this will only get bigger for them. [1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/amazon_google_map_bmrush/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/18/amazon_google_map_bm... [2]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/01/nokia_oracle_maps_deal/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/01/nokia_oracle_maps_de...
archangel_one 14y ago
> how much money could be made by licensing that data? Navteq still do license map data. But it's not as profitable as all that; IIRC they weren't breaking even when Nokia took them over. This seems fairly common in that industry; Ordnance Survey (who aren't fully commercial, but the same concept applies) are heavily supplemented by public money, for example. It's presumably even more expensive to do all the capture for Street View type data. > Alternatively, how much could be made by creating a map application for the major mobile platforms, and sell it to the consumer direct? That seems like a pretty good idea to me, although I doubt it's going to dig them out of a €1.5bn hole. Still, Nokia don't have a lot to lose at this point, although I feel like they're still in denial about their recent lack of competitiveness in smartphones.
- gman99 14y ago
  €1.5bn hole? Last I checked they had €4.2bn in the bank? http://press.nokia.com/2012/07/19/nokia-corporation-q2-2012-interim-report/ http://press.nokia.com/2012/07/19/nokia-corporation-q2-2012-... Edit: €1.3bn loss in Q1, €800ml loss last quarter. I guess that's what you meant. Still, not a "hole"... just driving straight into one :)
  - archangel_one 14y ago
    Sorry, probably not the right metaphor to use really. From the article, it suggested that division of Nokia was losing €1.5bn annually, and I don't think selling map software to mobile phone owners would make that much when there are already plenty of free (beer) alternatives.

hayksaakian 14y ago

Are they stealth or something 'cause I've certainly never seen them

mempko 14y ago
if you used mapquest, yahoo, bing, now amazon, any garmin device or any in car navigation system, you have seen them.

mddw 14y ago

Maybe better maps, but no street view, which is kind of a deal breaker for me as an "urban pedestrian".

GFischer 14y ago
Street View is amazing, but it's currently not available in my country (Uruguay) nor neighbouring Argentina, and it's not available in any region of Brazil that I've visited (I hear it's now available in Sao Paulo and Rio).

mtgx 14y ago

According to Ars, it's not, and Bing Maps seems to be the worst of the bunch: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/10/replacing-ios-6-maps-hands-on-with-mapquest-bing-waze-google-nokia/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/10/replacing-ios-6-maps-ha...

arrrg 14y ago
Uhm, they only say that they couldn’t really see any difference between Nokia Maps and Google Maps. To me that’s a ringing endorsement. Oh, and they were focusing on features, not the accuracy of the map data – which they also did not test in any particularly systematic way. This article doesn’t tell you at all whether or not Nokia's map data is better or worse than Google’s. It can’t because it doesn’t want to.
daliusd 14y ago
Not really. Nokia Maps is more than Nokia Maps on iOS. Downloadable/Offline maps is killer feature in Nokia Symbian/Meego phones (at least for travelling person from Europe). I guess the same solution is used in Lumia phones as well. Since I don't want to buy Lumia phone when there will be no Symbians anymore I hope Android will have proper offline maps or EU will force reasonable price for data connection across Europe (what it actually does gradually).
- omaranto 14y ago
  I'm not familiar with Nokia Maps at all. How is its offline feature better than Google Maps On Android's offline feature? (You call it "proper" suggesting to me that you consider better than the way Google Maps on Android does it.) I don't have a smart phone, just a WiFi only Android tablet and I've fund the offline maps features in Google Maps perfectly adequate.
  - daliusd 14y ago
    OK. I don't have any modern Android. I believe offline maps for Android is pretty new function. Right? I think in offline maps for Android you can download only selected region. Meanwhile with Nokia maps I can download map for individual country or state (in case of US).

berkut 14y ago

http://maps.nokia.com/3D/ http://maps.nokia.com/3D/

wheels 14y ago
Near my apartment Nokia's 3D maps are markedly better that Google Earth. Google only picks up that some of the buildings are 3D and they appear much taller than others since the perspective changes as you move, whereas Nokia gets things right: http://maps.nokia.com/52.492296,13.4478423,19.02,359.97,0,3d.day http://maps.nokia.com/52.492296,13.4478423,19.02,359.97,0,3d... https://maps.google.de/maps?q=Kiefholzstr.+9,+Berlin&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=52.492328,13.447785&spn=0.00099,0.002411&sll=52.506844,13.424732&sspn=0.503197,1.234589&t=f&hnear=Kiefholzstra%C3%9Fe+9,+12435+Berlin&z=19&ecpose=52.49229833,13.44778488,215.92,0.003,1.057,0 https://maps.google.de/maps?q=Kiefholzstr.+9,+Berlin&hl=... Notice how in the Google maps version the building that's bottom-center appears to be large and 3D, whereas my building seems small. In practice they're about the same height -- both 5 story apartment buildings.
- davidw 14y ago
  OTOH, with the Nokia link, I get "Sorry. For now, 3D Maps only works with these browsers" and a picture of Piazza San Marco and the Canal Grande in Venice. That's probably nicer looking than your apartment, so we'll be charitable and say that Nokia wins anyway.
  - snogglethorpe 14y ago
    Hmm, I'm running firefox but the nokia page still gives me the error message...
    - archangel_one 14y ago
      I'm running Chrome and get it also; I assume from the way they're listing operating systems it must be Linux that they think is the problem. Goodness knows why though, since the little play button shows me a HTML5 video and I'm pretty sure I saw a WebGL maps demo from Nokia just the other day?

linyu 14y ago

Google should buy Nokia then, for it's maps.

daliusd 14y ago
I wouldn't mind but Maps are not worth that much I guess - having in mind that Google has its own maps. Google already has Motorola what makes Nokia less attractive (e.g. patent portfolio).
potatolicious 14y ago
I'd actually rather Microsoft buy them. God help us if Google becomes the sole provider of (competent) mapping services.
GFischer 14y ago
As molmalo said, they used to license Nokia's maps: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4611625 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4611625

aroberge 14y ago

I'm curious as to how they found my exact address when I turned on the locator feature. Also, I wonder why Canada is not listed as a country for terms of use. Perhaps because the 3d features are not available here?...

kalleboo 14y ago

Nokia don't have perfect worldwide coverage though, they have nothing in Japan aside from outlines. (understandable as Nokia have zero market presence or ambition in Japan, but no good as an acquire)

hkmurakami 14y ago
That's not entirely true, since Navteq has a strong presence in the auto industry in Japan.

lampe 14y ago

the problem with nokia is not it software. The maps are good and other software too. BUT smartphones are about the OS these days! and Symbian(i loved the old s60 version on my ngage) is dead... and windows mobile dont got the big thirdparty app market like android and ios got! Yeah nokia has great maps but its like with Opera: "Opera the worlds best browser that no one uses"

toyg 14y ago
no one in broadband-happy Western countries, no. In countries where 56k speeds are still the norm, Opera rules the mobile space (in a way, they really are "the cloud browser"). Unfortunately, ruling the low-end is a bad place to be in IT, especially in the fashion-influenced mass-consumer space. No wonder they're trying hard to be acquired at the moment.
- lampe 14y ago
  on my Android i use Opera too! dont get me wrong i really like opera. but on the Desktop i dont know why but at this moment Chrome is for me my favourite browser. everytime when opera gets a new major release i test the version and opera next too.

userulluipeste 14y ago

No, it doesn't! At least not better then Google. For example streets marked in Doha, Qatar's capital, are totally outdated in Nokia maps - years old and inconsistent even with their own satellite view: http://maps.nokia.com/25.2835829,51.5508221,18,0,0,hybrid.day http://maps.nokia.com/25.2835829,51.5508221,18,0,0,hybrid.da...

ernesth 14y ago
From what I see, google has the same map for this crossroad, but a different satellite view.
- userulluipeste 14y ago
  Yeah, Nokia updated it's map in last two months. At the beginning of August it matched it's satellite view, and the funny part was that I relied on that map! I preferred Nokia maps because I found them to be more clear. But then on the spot I was like current Apple users with their Apple maps...

toyg 14y ago

Nokia has (or rather had) Better-Many-Things, and absolutely no idea what to do with them. They keep cutting trees but there's nobody in the forest to hear them fall, because they put huge signs all around saying "WE DON'T REALLY LIKE CUTTING TREES". A Microsoft (or why not, Facebook) acquisition is basically their only hope at this point, bar miracles.

jpkeisala 14y ago
Microsoft is not buying Nokia. They think it's better make their own (zune) phone. How hard can it be?
gcb 14y ago
my thoughts exactly while reading this article. Great. nice maps. how do i use them? and I was using a nokia handset overseas for the last month! only thing i could put there was an old version of google maps for s60.

twoodfin 14y ago

My problem with Apple's maps hasn't been the quality of the maps but the quality of the search. I was looking for the Sea Dog Brew Pub last night. When I put "seadog" into iOS 6 maps, no result, despite it being only a few miles away. Google Maps nailed it. Both maps had a record of the POI, but only Google's had the basic smarts to handle the missing space. More complicated examples are even worse for Apple, abs typically effortless for Google. Unless Nokia has all that fuzzy match/page rank DNA, I'm not sure simply more accurate maps will help.

acdha 14y ago
I ran into an even worse Apple problem: addresses with fractions will be parsed after the / - e.g. 1234 1/2 6th Street will be displayed at the correct location for "2 6th Street"! (Interestingly, Yelp displayed that restaurant correctly using the iOS 6 map widget so they appear to do their own geocoding) That said, I've also found multiple cases where Apple is better: e.g. around here there's a diner chain with 5 locations. Searching for their name with Google Maps on iOS 5 or maps.google.com will show only one hit 20 miles away for their business office. iOS correctly finds the actual restaurants and the first hit is the one 5 miles away. From my perspective, it felt like Google Maps got much worse about a year ago – but mostly on mobile.
potatolicious 14y ago
I've pretty much given up on search on iOS6. It seems more often than not entering an address like "123 Spruce" will take me to some landmark/town relating to the street name, a few states away. I can count the number of times the search actually picked up on the fact that I entered an address on a single hand. Apple, this is me trying to make things as easy for your craptastic search as possible. I've taken the trouble to type the number and the street name. If you can't take it from there, what the hell. I've also had the map place things in hilariously wrong places. These are shops with addresses (addresses that are correct on the detail pane!) that would somehow end up a block away or on the wrong side of the street. Worse yet, I've been redirect to a few no-longer-existent Starbucks by now. This is in Manhattan too, far from an obscure location.
- 14y ago

chayesfss 14y ago

Nokia sounds like it has great maps, also LOVE the layout of m.theatlantic.com. First article in a long time I could actually look at without feeling like I have ADHD. I'm going to start trying to add a m. in front of domains I read!

acdha 14y ago

Depends on where you live - around Washington DC, it's Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps, Apple (at some distance below) and then a huge gap before Bing, Nokia and MapQuest round out the low end of the results. I rather strongly suspect that the main consequences of Apple's move will be fragmentation as people adapt to the service which offers the best local coverage for them

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njx 14y ago

Because they own Navteq

Tomis02 14y ago

Nokia finger race: http://vimeo.com/28240021 http://vimeo.com/28240021

joelrunyon 14y ago

Here's the non-mobile link -> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/the-forgotten-mapmaker-nokia-has-better-maps-than-apple-and-maybe-even-google/263150/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/the-fo...

nekojima 14y ago

I'm disappointed to see that the earth maps from Google and Nokia of my town are three years old. I saw the copyright 2012 and had heard they'd been updated through a Google posting a few weeks ago. But checking a few new construction developments, which cars are in my parents' & their neighbours driveways and its no later than June 2009.

rm999 14y ago

I wonder if Apple has lost more value from the map debacle than Nokia's entire marketcap. Apple's stock is down ~25-30B dollars since the the iphone 5 came out, and Nokia is worth 10B.

cmccabe 14y ago

The internet has a short attention span, I guess. Nokia bought NAVTEQ for 8 billion dollars back in 2007. They sure ought to have good maps, after that! NAVTEQ might be receiving map data from many commercial fleets of trucks, but Google is receiving map data from anyone with an Android phone. I think GOOG has this one covered. When Nokia finishes its slow motion car crash, and they start auctioning off the company's assets, they will easily find a willing buyer for NAVTEQ. Both Apple and Microsoft will probably be interested. I don't know if it will command 8 billion next time around, but it will definitely be worth something (unless they make the mistake of mismanaging it into the ground before the end arrives.)