Apple Fires Manager Responsible for Maps as Eddy Cue Turns to Outsiders for Help

greatfx said:
I don't agree that the number of users has no bearing. That is a ridiculous premise. The internet practically runs on page views, and attached to that is adverts which makes things sustainable.

Even if Maps loses money, which is doubtful, the use of maps is not limited to Android. iOS users can and do use it on their browser and more importantly, people can use it on their computer browser, independent of any OS, Ubuntu, OSX, Windows, etc.

Before my smartphone days, mapquest was my go to to print out directions, now supplanted by Google maps. Maps draws in many eyes. Can Apple leverage the same? Can you access Apple Maps through the browser? Google Maps, even if a net loss, which is highly doubtful, undoubtedly plays a large part in making Google an indispensable part of your life. Look at the outcry now that the limited version of maps has been removed. Google insidiously makes their products so useful that you'll be questioning how you got along without it before.

Imagine if Apple created a search engine. Imagine that Apple's search results were comparable to Google's, maybe even a little bit superior. However, the caveat is that only iPhone users and people with Apple computers could utilize the search.

Compare that against Google search which is device independent. If you can connect to the internet, you can use Google search.

Where will the advertisers go? Where will the money flow to?

Android does not define Google. Google Maps does not define Google. Google defines Google. They provide a service.

Apple? Apple's identity is hugely tied into iOS and is largely defined by the iPhone and iPad, with Macs taking a seat in the back row.
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I can't help it if you don't believe the facts. But you *used* to be talking about it making financial sense. Again. There's no logical way it makes more *financial* sense to pour money into a net drain on a company's revenue than it makes to pour money into a net revenue source for a company.

You're right that Android and Maps don't define Google. Search defines Google and Ads define Google. Search because that's the company's main source of eyeballs, and Ads because that's the company's main source of revenue (selling those eyeballs to advertisers). Anything else Google does is an attempt to find other avenues to attract and sell those eyeballs to advertisers.

I like how you claim that "Google defines Google", but somehow it's not equally true that 'Apple defines Apple'. No support for the position, or even an attempt to justify it other than claiming that it's iOS, but it *can't* possibly be Ads for Google, even though that provides a larger proportion of Google's income than iOS does for Apple.

You're pretty good at sound-bites, but you're lousy at analysis. Ever thought of running a political campaign?
 
Mark Booth said:
Apple has sold 400+ million iOS devices. That's 116 million devices that are still on iOS 5. You are the one on drugs if you don't think 116 million is a significant number!

Mark
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I'm going to give you a minute to consider why your math and conclusions are wrong, because they absolutely are.
 
IJ Reilly said:
I am not ignoring it, in fact I attributed the internal issues to the CEO change. Unlike you however I am not prepared to assume that all changes wrought by a new CEO are necessarily productive or done for good reasons.
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I'm not the one making assumptions. You are. Your theory is completely reasonable. I'm just pointing out there are other interpretations of the facts that are also reasonable. Hence my use of the words "or" and "maybe".

A month of chair shuffling is a prolonged reorganization in business.
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A month? Forstall's dismissal and the reorganization were announced in the same day. Eddie Cue firing someone a few weeks after he takes responsibility for a new area isn't evidence of a prolonged reorganization.

AidenShaw said:
IOS self-updates. You have to fight to avoid the update.

This statistic simply says that 39% managed to defeat the automatic update feature.

Nothing more.
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Hyperbole aside, no, it doesn't.
 
gluckett said:
For those who have had good luck with Maps, I'm happy for you. I for one do not trust it for directions after a quick test I did though. I asked it for directions to the Target store that is about a mile from my office. In the picture, the store is the big white building top to the left of the red destination pin. The route in blue are the directions it gave - had me making a u-turn and stopping in the middle of a busy 4 lane highway...

Image
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Well, to be fair, it's not just Apple's maps that did this. Just installed the Google maps app and it gave the same directions...
 
gluckett said:
Well, to be fair, it's not just Apple's maps that did this. Just installed the Google maps app and it gave the same directions...
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Thank you for your honesty. How refreshing and unbiased :) I'm not a fanboy either but people seem to forget that TomTom helped to develop this with Apple, so there were many cooks in the kitchen, and many people could have stopped it before it was released. Ordinarily I would say that the buck still ends at Apples doorstep because they released it, but even that's not fair because they only had two options at the time; either release a Maps app or have no maps app included at all. Including google was not an option after what google did to Apple and their customers. So Apple rolled the dice and lost. They will rebuild the app and it will one day become the premier mapping app around. I have no doubt on that. They're already well into working on that. All we can do is wait and in the mean time find something else to use. I'm growing rather fond of Navigon myself :)
 
eda said:
Good news for the future. (hopefully)
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It’s not bad 5 years later. We get speed limits and lane assist. Really simple but some simple tasks can be hard to do. Siri went downhill tho and there’s this new thing called amazon Elegra that’s taking over the market. Googles trying to but name brand ellena is taking most the space in the field
 
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