Quick Fixes For Apple’s Maps App May Be Pretty Challenging

Posted on November 27, 2012 by AppleBitch



A report today revealed that the man that was apparently responsible for the Apple Maps app has been let go from the company as new man Eddy Cue seeks to gain control over some of the limitations in the app (via Bloomberg). Richard Williamson was head of the mapping team for Apple, and was apparently dismissed by Cue, who is reportedly seeking help from outside Apple on the best way to improve the Maps app.

In addition, Cue is reportedly putting pressure on TomTom NV, the primary source of the mapping data for the Apple Maps app, to rapidly improve the data that it is providing. But this is going to be a fairly significant challenge as you have to remember that its not just TomTom that is providing the data, but dozens of other companies (check out the data attribution listing here). So, while TomTom may be the primary maps data provider, there’s a hell of a lot of other companies to consider.

But, you can bet that with Eddy Cue starting to reform Apple’s approach to the Maps app, there will be a significant amount of change very soon.

Improvements…

Also on AppleBitch.com:

This entry was posted in News and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • Peter

    First suggestion: Better business data–or at least cross check the data you have.

    For example, about 5 years ago there was a Tony Roma’s down the street from where I live. It’s now closed. If I go to Yelp and ask for the closest rib place to my house, it tells me about BBQ Bistro. If I ask Apple maps, I tells me about the Tony Roma’s that closed five years ago. If I tap on the “Find this restaurant in Yelp,” nothing happens.

    So Yelp knows it doesn’t exist but Apple still thinks it does. Yelp knows that BBQ Bistro exists but Apple has never heard of it.

    And now you know why my phone still runs iOS 5 (the above example is from the iOS Simulator).

    • T.D. Shadow

      Did you click the corner and submit the error? You should know that Apple Maps is crowdsourced and reports from customers take top priority.