"Now/Today" need vs "Eventually" need
The fun part about all this is the different categories of need. I've seen some saying "never use maps, why are you all so torqued about this?" to "Google maps are bad as no turn by turn or this or that" to "map data will eventually get better".
For those that don't have a direct immediate need of good maps, don't use it day-to-day, or the features override the data in priority with belief that data will improve over time and Google maps makes data errors too, its certainly understandable that this group won't see the Maps app issue as a big failure or concern. Rightly so.
Unfortunately, the users of the iPhone aren't a homogeneous group. Among us is the group where the Map app for a variety of reasons may be as essential a day-to-day item as phone calling or email or whatever else and the map data may be much more important than new features or functions...when I type in an address it needs to go to the right place first time whether there is a turn-by-turn capability or not. This group can include students going to their first job interview, small business people in the field that go to different client locations for the first time every day (delivery, appraisal, home inspection, delivery, home care, cleaning, etc), people on vacation, visiting, or moving to a new location and trying to find their way around, etc. And the variety of available map data for more than addresses along with the variety of ways to easily get to that data (i.e. link directly from email info to map) and alternate means to examine the data to verify where you are going (satellite pic with good detail, streetview type functions, etc) and not having to pop into a Web browser or a variety of secondary apps (sometimes even more than one) to use maps to find a place only increases this growth in dependence on the reliability of map data to "find" where you want to go and it working properly and neatly (as in Apple's "it just works"). This group has adopted to this way of doing things, so its not frivolous to them whether it works or not...they need it to work "now" and to continue to work "now" since its been working fine since "then" and they've structured their way of working/playing/traveling/etc to that capability just the same as so many have structured the way they socialize to integrate social networking media into their daily lives. Some can put down social media, but you can't deny it or turn it off suddenly with it being so prevalent, it is what it is.
And to take the social media example one more step, there are those that structure their business, advertising, interactions, scheduling, etc around that...well, the same goes to businesses that just like the old "presence in the phone book" idea, have structured themselves to be visible where the majority of map and location searches happen, in this case between Android and the old iOS pre-6, was Google.
So keep those groups in mind and now picture Apple walks in and basically says "hey, we have a new functionality/capability for maps for you but in the process the data is going to suck big time in many areas and your collective experience is going to move it up from, lets say, 10% error to 70-90% depending on area in getting the address right the first time. And by the way, you no longer have half decent satellite images or street view or equivalent to help resolve questionable address results, etc".
So to take one section of this group as an example, you are a small business person that works in the field and you can't find your clients anymore...you're gonna be ticked if you upgraded you software as your device has now become a brick in terms of the functionality you need and use everyday, and you're gonna hold off upgrading your device even if you didn't upgrade your software on your old one.
Take this further, you are now waiting to see what Apple does in response to this bricking of your functionality. If you managed to keep your old device on iOS 5 you still have the old functionality, but now depending on Apple's moves you may or may not consider upgrading devices in the near future. If you upgraded your device's software or bought the new device, now you are in an urgent response point where if Apple doesn't move quickly, you are having to return the device or buy a new one like Android fast to replace that missing functionality.
One more step only, promise. Now take this group that lives and breathes this functionality to the same level as some do social media, and they are facing a frozen software ecosystem where they can't upgrade ever or they lose their maps, or they have had or are having to trend to another device from another ecosystem like Android, Winphone, etc. A large % of this group probably uses more than one device from the same ecosystem (for Apple that might mean iOS devices, Macbooks, iMacs, etc). This group tends to prefer a nice tidy ecosystem of compatible devices that don't requrie a lot of work to keep them talking to each other...if they have to replace one device, over time they are going to trend to replace other devices along the same decision lines.
This too could be a long term hurtful trend to Apple. Apple already lived through this one with iCloud that I lived through in a small business user sense...you could use it in iOS but it did not play well with the Mac OSX or Windows environment for continuity of use and info right out of the box. So people in this same group looking for cloud solutions went elsewhere with their decisions where there were more cohesive architectures (MS Office/Hotmail/Skydrive, Google equivalent, Dropbox plus any email service and office apps, etc) and they relegated iCloud to the same status as Apple Maps flyover...neat, but not much use beyond a little bit of novelty. And this group tends to not to wait a year or to look back at that functionality a year later as they may have waited patiently for it to first come out the first time and expected Apple's "it just works" to apply...when it didn't, time to move on, no second chances as we need it to "just work" in the now, not the far future because we have decisions to make on what we are going to use full-time in the "now" after waiting to this point of time when the later became "now" once already.
Confusing isn't it? LOL...but the essence is if you need something to just work in the now, promising it will work later and by the way your old functionality no longer works in the now is a great way to send people elsewhere without any intention of returning because they have started down another path and have no interest in reversing course yet again after trust is broken.
Anyway, all of this to say its one concern no one seemed to be addressing...those that live by a certain type and level of functionality that is taken away...guess what, they have to move on and aren't likely to wait around for the later as they can't afford to if that functionality impacts them too severely in the now.
