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Apple Actively Recruiting Ex-Google Maps Employees

hexagonheat said:
Yeah it's pretty fast when you pump out quality renders like this:
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Flyover and satellite views are eye candy. Sure there are some things to fix there, but it hardly breaks usability. When it comes to routing and accuracy and rendering of the vector based view, then Apple Maps are fine. Google has plenty of routing and accuracy problems too. The best advantage that Google has is street view, and even that is not perfect. I have has Street View show me the wrong location, the side of a truck, or a horribly out-dated image of the location due to all the foreclosure and remodeling in the last few years. But when Street View works it is good. Anecdotal evidence of defects does not tarnish the usability of the solution as a whole.
 
mrial said:
I don't get it either. You can still get google's street view with the app "Live Street View". How much harder is it to start a new app and tap for the occasional times you need a street view?
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While it isn't really hard at all. For instance you still can just go to google maps on safari. It just seems that most people don't want to have to and instead would just have every single thing built right into there phone. Less work for them (even if that extra work is waiting 5 more seconds). This is how people support the 'walled garden'. :rolleyes:
 
I know Apple maps is pretty bad, but I don't know why we are all comparing this to Google maps, maybe its just me but I hardly ever had a good experience with Google maps.. The graphics were nice and all but the directions it would give me on road trips were almost always the long-route to get to where I want and not the most effective way to go, maybe its just where I live (United States, suburbs of NY?) but a lot of people I know have had similar experiences.

Before iOS 5, I relied on a 3rd party GPS app on both my iPhone and iPad, only used Google Maps when desperate and the other app wasn't connecting well for some reason.
 
gpat said:
It will take more than hiring Google's leftovers to get the job done. Why even bother instead of adopting the far superior Google maps?
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Apple did not have a choice [...]. Apple did not go away from google maps because they just decided one day oh well time to move on. They did it because Google was done nothing at all to merit them staying with them.

I for one find Apple implementation excellent, they need more time but personally google can take a long walk on a short pear. Apple has not only made a better looking Map/GPS software but its only going to get better in the coming year or so. It takes time for such a big endeavor. I for one am getting plenty of use in the last few days with the new app, its good enough and easy to use that I dropped navigon for now.
 
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Exotic-Car Man said:
Google has 7,100 people working on Maps alone. Apple needs to do some major catching-up.
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Google reportedly makes about $2bn annually by bombarding Mac and iOS users with adverts. Now divide $2bn by 7,100. That's about $280,000. And Google can't complain if Apple actively headhunts Google employees for creating maps, since Google, Apple and others have just recently been told that any agreement to do no headhunting is actually illegal.


stukick said:
So Apple is admitting, at least privately, that their maps app sucks.
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So according to you, nobody should ever try to improve what they have? Google maps must be rubbish then if they have 7,100 people working on it, according to your logic?


Saladinos said:
Because that's how progress is made, and how markets stay competitive. By challenging the market leader.
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I think Apple will step very heavily on Google's toes in the next few years. Google's strategy has been destructive for many businesses, because all they care about is advertising revenue, so they don't mind destroying others' business (like TomTom) for that purpose. In the end, that's the whole purpose of Android as well. Maps is the first step by Apple to destroy Google's business. Apple doesn't care about advertising, because their business is selling hardware. Providing maps _without giving advertisement revenue to Google_ makes a lot of business sense to Apple, and if it costs Google money then right now this is a very welcome side effect.

And to everyone who thinks Apple can't catch up: Apple is in this for the long game. Apple doesn't care about quarterly revenues, or annual revenues, they look at least ten years ahead.
 
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applesith said:
I'm waiting for Google Maps app to come to App Store
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http://maps.google.com

Use that while you wait if you really need it. So far I have not needed it, but it is a good backup for when Apple or Navigon have an issue with a particular location.
 
dbyway said:
Am I the only one that hasn't had a problem with Maps so far? I'm guessing yes.
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Nope. I'm good with the maps too. Evaded two traffic delays thanks to re-routing from the maps. And everything in my area so far has been accurate with turn by turn. Must be a localized issue.
 
I hope this article is from a year ago that HAPPENED to be published today :rolleyes:

Cuz the exceedingly obvious, hiring experts in this subject, before releasing it, would have been much more intelligent.
 
I've used Maps for navigation three times so far, and all three times it has performed wonderfully. Navigation is clean and uncluttered, and I like how it prominently shows my next action at the top.

I primarily use maps for navigation. I couldn't use Google Maps for navigation, so this is a huge advantage for me. I will concede that street view was really useful, and Maps' 3D is gimmicky and not useful.
 
BC2009 said:
Flyover and satellite views are eye candy.
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Hardly. You can get around with raw maps. People have been doing it for years. But satellite and street view allows you to get a much more intimate look at where you're headed before you get there. Takes out quite a bit of the guesswork that usually comes at the end destination.

Plus other people have mentioned using it to find out where to park, what storefronts look like, ect. ect. ect. It's a handy feature.
 
subsonix said:
maps.google.com
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Yup. I added a link to it to my home screen and moved Apple's map application with other, less-used apps for now. I hadn't used Google maps like this before and I'm surprised by how well it works.
 
BC2009 said:
USA and Canada maps are from TomTom/TeleAtlas. Outside the USA it is using OpenStreetMaps data which is crowd-sourced.
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This is a misleading suggestion - OpenStreetMap (singular) data is being used much in iOS6 maps, but much less widely than you suggest. I've confirmed OSM data in Papua New Guinea, but in any European country I've checked it's Tom Tom data.

It should be pointed out that, although many folk have been expecting better of Tom Tom, their data is not of uniform quality across the globe. Here in Ireland, for instance, much of it is poor or outdated or both. It's also what was powering Google Maps here until a month or so ago.
 
Renzatic said:
Hardly. You can get around with raw maps. People have been doing it for years. But satellite and street view allows you to get a much more intimate look at where you're headed before you get there. Takes out quite a bit of the guesswork that usually comes at the end destination.

Plus other people have mentioned using it to find out where to park, what storefronts look like, ect. ect. ect. It's a handy feature.
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Its not anything most people use. I have never needed it, If your at the place then your own eyes and not a 3 year old picture will tell you more.
 
Zwhaler said:
Plain and simple, Apple should have waited before releasing their maps to the public. It isn't finished yet! Now they're scrambling to finish it because obviously people are going to notice its defects. But Apple can get away with doing this because of the crazy demand for the new iPhone.
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http://counternotions.com/2012/09/21/applemaps/
 
That's smart. It's gonna be better than google maps in less than 2 years.
 
Renzatic said:
The biggest problem was that Apple completely replaced the (currently) considerably more functional app to make room for their (currently) subpar solution. We wouldn't be having this discussion now if Apple provided it as a downloadable beta off the App Store while still keeping the old Google driven app available as a fallback option. That way, people could've worked on expanding it and making it more accurate without having to make any sacrifices in the meantime.

And yes, right now it's pretty beta. The software driving the maps is complete, sure. It's actually quite nice. But the maps themselves? Not so much.
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no one would of downloaded or least would of downloaded in and never used, it would be a "why do i want that when i have this" situation and apple maps would of been doomed from the start.
 
mackerski said:
This is a misleading suggestion - OpenStreetMap (singular) data is being used much in iOS6 maps, but much less widely than you suggest. I've confirmed OSM data in Papua New Guinea, but in any European country I've checked it's Tom Tom data.

It should be pointed out that, although many folk have been expecting better of Tom Tom, their data is not of uniform quality across the globe. Here in Ireland, for instance, much of it is poor or outdated or both. It's also what was powering Google Maps here until a month or so ago.
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If that is true then the article I read is wrong. I've always preferred Navteq to TeleAtlas/TomTom for accuracy, but TomTom is touted by many as being great. But even Google uses TeleAtlas in Europe so how much better can they be? Just see the screen shot from Spain on this post by Kontra:

http://counternotions.com/2012/09/21/applemaps/
 
dbyway said:
Am I the only one that hasn't had a problem with Maps so far? I'm guessing yes.
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No, you are not. I'm just glad that I am not the only one ;) I really like the new Maps. Although it really needs to show more businesses.
 
kiljoy616 said:
Apple did not have a choice [...]. Apple did not go away from google maps because they just decided one day oh well time to move on. They did it because Google was done nothing at all to merit them staying with them.

I for one find Apple implementation excellent, they need more time but personally google can take a long walk on a short pear. Apple has not only made a better looking Map/GPS software but its only going to get better in the coming year or so. It takes time for such a big endeavor. I for one am getting plenty of use in the last few days with the new app, its good enough and easy to use that I dropped navigon for now.
Click to expand...

I'm picturing the long walk on a short pear...

But seriously, I am surprised at the speed of the app and detail here in Panama City. Haven't tried it back in the US of A yet.

danpass said:
I hope this article is from a year ago that HAPPENED to be published today :rolleyes:

Cuz the exceedingly obvious, hiring experts in this subject, before releasing it, would have been much more intelligent.
Click to expand...

...well please excuse MR for boring you
 
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dugbee said:
Not sure how more staff can fix lack of data. Unless one of the contractors happened to walk out of google with a magic many-petabyte USB drive.
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It's really quite simple.

Apple used TomTom data, but messed up with them. Know that TomTom data are used in 50% of car brands, inclusing Audi, BMW, Renault, Mercedes. And also works fine in all HTC phones. Then you might see that it's not the data that's weak, bur the way Apple handled the data. When comparing errors in Apple maps, those same errors do not occur on maps.tomtom.com

Now also Apple is leveraging yelp points of interest. I heard complaints from Barcelona where Yelp is not a common service, resulting in only 20% of bars and restaurants being listed in Apple maps. TomTom has 30 million points of interest on offer, including gass stations and parkinggarages, that Apple for some reason doesn't leverage.

Now the solution is quite simple. Apple has just a handful of people working on maps. Those are errors in GLOBAL maps that Apple cannot solve from cubicles in Cupertino. How to handle numerous complaints from India or middle east? Hiring some 2nd grade Google people won't solve it. The whole strategy needs to be altered.

Now Apple has just a handful of employees. Google has 6.000 contractors. TomTom has 3.500 in-house specialists.

Apple should acquire TomTom. They will then own the maps, own local workforces, own traffic and routing algorithms and tens of years of experience from people who gave google maps a headstart by licensing tomtom/teleatlas maps to google.

Apple has the money for it. And it would scare the hell out of Google maps. I'm serious, it would.
 
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