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ArchAndroid

macrumors regular
Aug 26, 2012
100
4
London, England
Net result

Apple Maps becomes flawless within a 5-mile radius of any Apple Store.

Apple Maps remains hopeless for the majority of other locations.
 

kevinpdoyle

macrumors member
May 2, 2012
91
386
I fail to see how this has any downside. At worst it marginally improves the maps experience while giving employees a new opportunity. Smart move.
 

themoonisdown09

macrumors 601
Nov 19, 2007
4,319
18
Georgia, USA
I've used the Navigation feature in iOS 6 maps several times now when I've gone out of town and the directions have been accurate every time. I guess it depends on your area, but I don't know what the big deal is. Google maps have failed me before, so this shouldn't be anything new.
 

nia820

macrumors 68020
Jun 27, 2011
2,131
1,980
I fail to see how this has any downside. At worst it marginally improves the maps experience while giving employees a new opportunity. Smart move.
The downside is not every country or area has an apple store. I'm currently working in Qatar and there is no official apple store. So who is going to collect data here?
 

KnightWRX

macrumors Pentium
Jan 28, 2009
15,046
4
Quebec, Canada
2 issues with this :

If simply using retail store employees to scout around and "Report problems" from the app : while they're doing that, who's going to be serving customers in the retail stores ?

If taking user reports and simply updating the database, as pointed out, what if the mistake is in the integration of data from OSM or TomTom and the correction is eventually overwritten with faulty data ? I doubt retail store employees have the capacity/knowledge required to trace back the mistake to the source.

And frankly, if the problem is OSM or TomTom, the retail employees can't exactly fix that beyond sending the report upstream and waiting for an update/re-merge.

No really, this sounds quite fishy and desperate as a tactic. Unless retail employees are willing to work for free, you're going to lose 40 man hours/store where customers are now going to get even less service (I hate going to the Apple stores, the employees never seem to have time to get you what you need).
 

shk718

macrumors 65816
Jun 26, 2007
1,120
1,098
sounds to me like a lot of the updating is grunt work - seems pretty smart to me to enlist their 40,000 employees to fix the mapping issues!!!! i'm sure initially they will fix the areas they live in - then once they get the hang of it spread out.
 

KnightWRX

macrumors Pentium
Jan 28, 2009
15,046
4
Quebec, Canada
They could be using this to double check corrections being offered by iOS 6 users. It's actually kind of clever, since there are Apple Stores all over the place.

We have one on Saint-Catherine street and another at Carefour Laval... I really doubt those guys know about all the POIs on the Montreal North and South Shore, much less all the streets, etc..

There really aren't "Apple Stores" all over. Maybe in the US, where the maps are already mostly OK... but then, what does that help ? On top of the other logistics issues I raised.
 

kevinpdoyle

macrumors member
May 2, 2012
91
386
The downside is not every country or area has an apple store. I'm currently working in Qatar and there is no official apple store. So who is going to collect data here?

That's not a downside. A downside is a problem resulting from an action, in your case there will be no action.
 

Northgrove

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2010
1,149
437
iOS 6 maps is a failure. Steve Jobs would have never allowed such a terrible product to be released.
Ping was so bad that it had to be shut down. Antennagate where they had to ship free covers is very similar to this case and their confidence in a product or design where they had to backtrack later on. I'm not sure why some of you keep bringing up Steve Jobs, as if he was some sort of infallible God. He was an excellent CEO but he was still human. Most of what he did was pretty great, a few things not so great. Just like the feature set in the iPhone 5. Let's move on.
 

samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
Perhaps what's to gain is the illusion they are on top of the data and doing everything they can.

2 issues with this :

If simply using retail store employees to scout around and "Report problems" from the app : while they're doing that, who's going to be serving customers in the retail stores ?

If taking user reports and simply updating the database, as pointed out, what if the mistake is in the integration of data from OSM or TomTom and the correction is eventually overwritten with faulty data ? I doubt retail store employees have the capacity/knowledge required to trace back the mistake to the source.

And frankly, if the problem is OSM or TomTom, the retail employees can't exactly fix that beyond sending the report upstream and waiting for an update/re-merge.

No really, this sounds quite fishy and desperate as a tactic. Unless retail employees are willing to work for free, you're going to lose 40 man hours/store where customers are now going to get even less service (I hate going to the Apple stores, the employees never seem to have time to get you what you need).

They aren't enlisting all 40K. Not even close. And if they aren't on the clock - they won't be doing diddly.

sounds to me like a lot of the updating is grunt work - seems pretty smart to me to enlist their 40,000 employees to fix the mapping issues!!!! i'm sure initially they will fix the areas they live in - then once they get the hang of it spread out.
 

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Feb 5, 2009
5,426
4,391
To the forum member who suggested this days ago, and then was blasted for the idea, you were right.

I do remember this ... I am wrong for thinking maybe he just got one of these "talks" from either his Apple Store manager a few days before this story broke to the public, though?

"its vast number of retail store employees"

Does it have a vast number? 60k isn't nothing but I'm not sure it is vast either.

That's a lot of manpower to throw at the situation if you ask me. Their are 10 employees committed to this per store, and 391 stores worldwide.

That's 3,910 employees.

Even if this is restricted solely to the USA (which, would be stupid, granted the issue seems worse in foreign countries), that's still 2,500 employees.

Net result

Apple Maps becomes flawless within a 5-mile radius of any Apple Store.

Apple Maps remains hopeless for the majority of other locations.

:D This made me laugh, because it's probably true.
 

kingtj

macrumors 68030
Oct 23, 2003
2,606
749
Brunswick, MD
For all the complaining ...

I have to wonder how many iOS Maps users have much experience using other GPS systems?

I've used a number of in-car models over the years, including two used extensively when I worked as a courier, and others used to find clients for an on-site service business.

I've found that the POI information is notoriously poor and outdated in pretty much all of these units.

Google really is the exception to the rule here. They've got so many businesses doing at least a free (if not a paid) listing with them, they've got some of the most current address data just handed to them. Plus, they invest pretty heavily in mapping/photographing everything. I've seen Google cars driving around my city several different times. How often have I seen anyone identifying themselves as working for ANY of the other mapping companies? Never!

I suspect most makers of GPS systems simply buy the same POI databases from one of only a handful of suppliers, and by the time they incorporate it in their particular unit or map update, it's at least a year out of date already.

Navteq supplies map and POI data for *many* different GPS products (including the ones most auto makers use for their built-in systems) and they offer a website where anyone can upload a map correction. Regardless, their POI data is just as often wrong as everyone else's.

Apple, IMO, is doing the right thing with this idea of appointing teams of people to take care of this. When you rely on just anyone voluntarily submitting corrections, it's a double-edged sword. It gives you a lot of updates - including in rural areas where you might not otherwise get them. But it also means a lot of bad data comes in, and a lot of people fail to note corrections since there's very little in it for them.
 

MonkeySee....

macrumors 68040
Sep 24, 2010
3,858
437
UK
I visit quite a few forums and i'm a Moderator on a Football forum and I have to say this place is the most negative place on the internet.

Any sort of good news gets turned into bad. :confused:
 

shk718

macrumors 65816
Jun 26, 2007
1,120
1,098
Ping was so bad that it had to be shut down. Antennagate where they had to ship free covers is very similar to this case and their confidence in a product or design where they had to backtrack later on. I'm not sure why some of you keep bringing up Steve Jobs, as if he was some sort of infallible God. He was an excellent CEO but he was still human. Most of what he did was pretty great, a few things not so great. Just like the feature set in the iPhone 5. Let's move on.

EXACTLY - Steve had many failures - the smart CEO manages the mistakes and doesn't allow them to hurt the company and learns from them. iPhone sales don't seem to be affected - so far - good job Tim!
 

Zunjine

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2009
715
0
A recent report had apple maps usage at just 4% (and even those who spot errors may not report them). I am guessing that Apple's initial plan of relying on consumer loyalty didn't quite pan out.

That report was seriously flawed. It measured data use but didn't take into account that the vector graphics on the new maps app need refreshing far less often. Many will be using the maps without needing to pull down new data.
 
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