In Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s feud with Google, over
the struggle for dominance in the smartphone market the biggest casualty has
been the iPhone's mapping feature.
It looks like a classic case of cutting the nose to spite
your face. Apple ditched Google and in an attempt to be one-up on the Internet
search giant, has saddled its customers with a product which is much inferior
and misleading.
Users, critics and technology experts have widely
criticised the application from Apple, which, they say, doesn’t provide
directions for public transportation and sometimes gets confused when
navigating users.
The Cupertino company had believed that it could
deliver a better experience for customers than Google. An analyst at Forrester
Research said that in the shot-term Google's application was much better.
Gadget reviewers said that in its hurry to displace
Google, Apple lost its way with the mapping application. While Apple has been
touting the feature as a key software change in its new operating system,
critics are calling it the biggest drawback to the iPhone.
Google has been working on its mapping application for
over a decade and has been honing it constantly. On the other hand Apple's map
app looks like it has been hastily patched and put out. The application has
been created using data from navigation firm TomTom and others.
Apple, meanwhile, has responded all the criticism it
has been receiving and said that it would soon improve the feature in the next
few days.
In a statement Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the
launch of Apple Maps was a major undertaking for the firm.
“We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a
cloud-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get,” she
said.
“We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are
working hard to make the customer experience even better,” added Ms Muller.
On Friday TomTom, which provides the data underlying
the map app, said it was “more than willing” to help Apple improve the
application.
“We stand by the quality of our maps,” said TomTom
spokeswoman Caroline Fisher. She added that although TomTom did not have a team
in place at Apple it was happy to supply developers to help make the app work
better.
Title above should be:
ReplyDeleteApple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone 5 A serious Drawback to the iPhone 5
Seriously, people...before you buy this phone, do some research on the internet. The phone may be pretty, but its got technology and performance from 2010, at ultra-premium prices.
I know it looks pretty, but it's not THAT much prettier than other phones out there (arguably uglier than some).
Don't buy Apple's koolaid PR releases either.
-It's NOT faster than other phones (much-slower infact). The single-threaded speed tests that Apple released are a very narrow test of its performance
-Battery life is bad, as evidenced by various real-life tests by people
-The overall Apple ecosystem is as closed as every (more-so, actually, with the ban of Google's YouTube and Google Maps app)
Stop and do some research (and not in websites/publications that get Apple sponsorship), people, before buying this phone