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Apple Reportedly Moving Ahead With Ads in Maps App

Fallforward said:
Maybe they need the ads to support the lousy app. Curious how many of the critical comments here are from people who actually use Apple Maps. In terms of monthly active iOS/MacOS users, Googple Maps & Google Waze have a 70-80% market share and across all devices has a 92% market share. I use Google Maps on my iPhone and Mac (except Naver Maps in Korea).

On a global level, Google Maps is so much better in so many ways, like transit routing, offline map support, street view, multistop trip planning (terrific when vacationing, you can even shuffle up to 10 locations to optimize a walk to various places), terrian maps (better for hiking), etc.
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I actually prefer Apple Maps because I find their transit info and routing more accurate, visually more appealing, and better driving directions.

POIs are fine for me in the USA, but can be a mixed bag outside of the US (but I can still find what I want 90% of the time) in my experience.
 
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themachugger said:
It's maddening to type the actual name of the App or company that you specifically want only to have to scroll down and hope the one you need is obvious. If Maps does this crap, I'll find an alternative.
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Hopefully not sponsored by T-Mobile. I'm not looking forward to seeing the location of every Little Caesars and T-Mobile store.
 
AssassuN said:
So who's left that's making good products?
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Usually free Open Source Software is the best to use. (Remember: Software is like sex, it's better when it's free!)
In this case "Organic Maps"!

Unfortunately Apple doesn't favor Open Source Software, cause there is absolutely no opportunity to squeeze more & more & more for the insatiable shareholders...

Regarding hardware it seems best to use a generic Android device and install something like GrapheneOS or similar.
Unfortunately no real alternative OS for iPhones exist... 🤔
 
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UliBaer said:
Usually free Open Source Software is the best to use. (Remember: Software is like sex, it's better when it's free!)
In this case "Organic Maps"!

Unfortunately Apple doesn't favor Open Source Software, cause there is absolutely no opportunity to squeeze more & more & more for the insatiable shareholders...

Regarding hardware it seems best to use a generic Android device and install something like GrapheneOS or similar.
Unfortunately no real alternative OS for iPhones exist... 🤔
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Will take a look. Thank you!
 
Aoligei said:
If Apple starts pushing ads to its Apple Map, what other advantages over Google Maps or Waze?

People who choose Apple Maps are either:
1) People who just use default applications
2) People who doesn't want ads
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People who think Apple Maps is better than google. I chose Apple Maps because its poi interface is more elegant. I’m not going to change that or throw the baby out with the bath water.
 
Selling ads is a slippery slope...

It never enhances the experience of the users, and to get the most out of it they need to track impact, serve the ads most likely to be interesting to you etc....all the things we buy Apple to avoid, actually.

Apple has made a lot of money selling their product to you, rather than packaging you as the product. If they change that, I might change too. Then they lost their key differentiator apart from higher pricing. Also, as Google Maps is a lot better for finding things there'd be no reason to just use that as a backup rather than the primary solution.
 
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xyz01 said:
Selling ads is a slippery slope...

It never enhances the experience of the users, and to get the most out of it they need to track impact, serve the ads most likely to be interesting to you etc....all the things we buy Apple to avoid, actually.

Apple has made a lot of money selling their product to you, rather than packaging you as the product. If they change that, I might change too. Then they lost their key differentiator apart from higher pricing. Also, as Google Maps is a lot better for finding things there'd be no reason to just use that as a backup rather than the primary solution.
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Perfectly put.

/thread
 
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C'mon now, Apple needs to help pay for Trump's ballroom 😂

But, honestly, I drive cars across Colorado for a living, and Waze works best for me. I usually know where I'm going, but because driving here can be a challenge, I like getting (almost) real-time information on what's ahead. I use that in conjunction with CDOT's cameras and website.
 
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Alan-in-CO said:
C'mon now, Apple needs to help pay for Trump's ballroom 😂

But, honestly, I drive cars across Colorado for a living, and Waze works best for me. I usually know where I'm going, but because driving here can be a challenge, I like getting (almost) real-time information on what's ahead. I use that in conjunction with CDOT's cameras and website.
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Yeah for utility, nothing comes close to Waze - assuming there's an active network in the area you're driving in, else Google Maps.

There's basically no UVP for Apple Maps anymore after this.
 
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ashdelacroix said:
I remember from one of the past legal disclosures that an Apple executive said to not charge more would be "leaving money on the table". That phrase haunts me because I cannot help thinking that is the modus operandi of Apple today, despite its absolutely enormous wealth and revenues: don't leave money on the table. If you can charge more, charge more, if you can monetise it, monetise it. Oh dear, Apple. Jobs would be horrified that Apple wants to be Google. Today's Apple would remind him of IBM: too big to fail, but it did.
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You do realize that the executives of a for-profit public company have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize long-term shareholder value, don't you? Leaving money on the table with no plausible business justification would invite an executive team's ouster for breach of fiduciary duty. If the board failed to act, activist investors would. The stock market would beat both the board and the activist investors to the punch, punishing the stock mercilessly to bring its price in line with the expected market return rate.

Jobs would not be horrified by what Apple is doing today on the profit front. I don't know who you think Steve Jobs was, but there was one criticism of him that was constant throughout his industry tenure: He maintained premium pricing and high profit margins, refusing to compete on price. Criticizing Apple for continuing his practice betrays a lack of knowledge of how Apple has always operated.
 
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transpo1 said:
I use Apple Maps constantly when traveling local. When taking big trips or overseas, I switch to Google. That said, I have noticed significant room for improvement in Maps. Perhaps they should fix its issues before including ads.
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I'm going to qualify my earlier post by adding this caveat-- Google Maps is by no means perfect, either, although they generally have much better data on places, etc.
 
I tolerate Apple Maps to get away from ads and to just see results. If they are going to display ads, I might as well use Google Maps, which generally has better data.

I buy Apple Products specifically because I’m not the product. Apple shifting this direction is very disappointing.
 
What's next, Ads in CarPlay? Ads while I'm having a phone conversation?
Glad car manufactures are moving away from CarPlay and may be one more reason to move away from Apple ecosystem.
 
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