“Perhaps the most egregious error is that Apple’s team relied on quality control by algorithm and not a process partially vetted by informed human analysis. You cannot read about the errors in Apple Maps without realizing that these maps were being visually examined and used for the first time by Apple’s customers and not by Apple’s QC teams. If Apple thought that the results were going to be any different than they are, I would be surprised. Of course, hubris is a powerful emotion.”
Exploring Local » Blog Archive » Google Maps announces a 400 year advantage over Apple Maps
Lots of good stuff from this article re: Apple’s massive failure in launching a half baked maps product. If it’s not ready or usable, don’t ship it.
You could argue that web product development ship stuff in beta all the time and have users test and the product team can then iterate: but that model relies on a) the speed at which web deploys can be mustered and b) the types of products that web platform pushes out and c) the degree of polish that most ‘beta’ products attain before being launched for public consumption. IMHO, the iOS6 maps app isn’t ready for prime time and for a company that defines itself with platitudes like “magical”, “best ever”, “incredible” — this is a serious failing.
Going forward, I can’t see how Apple gets out of this mess in a timely manner, unless it gets help from its archrivals (Microsoft/Nokia or Google). Good luck with that. Building out a marginally acceptable maps platform is a long long road. Here’s hoping that Google or Bing Maps will come out with an iOS app soon.
Credit of the article goes to jokru.
