iOS 9's Upcoming Transit Addition to Maps May Be Limited in Scope at Launch

[avanpelt]

A team of 10 software engineers is not necessarily better than a team of 5 engineers.

For some projects you need quality, not quantity.

With the cash reserves Apple has, you'd think if they were hungry/desperate enough to solve the Apple Maps problem, they would've paid top dollar and would've been able to attract quality people that could've made some huge strides within three years.

To this day, there are still areas on this planet where people live and work that look like a barren wasteland as far as Apple Maps is concerned. It's only if you switch to satellite view that you see that there are actually roads there. Apple Maps is one of the few modern mapping applications about which it can be said that an outdated satellite view is sometimes more accurate than the standard map view.

 

[flat five]

New York

hopefully it shows the bus locations real-time.
would be sweet.

 

[leon44]

It certainly seems like people outside the U.S depend on the U.S to give them something to enjoy. Why is it that the U.S. is extremely anemic when it comes to products made outside the U.S? Very few companies outside the U.S. care to offer their products to the U.S.

Wtf? do you guys not have Japanese and German cars? Swedish furniture? Dutch electronics?

I live in the UK and the pretty much the only American products I own are Apple ones. In general American brands are a bit trashy. No one's depending on America, we're depending on Apple.

 

[furam90]

It's embarrassing that they still haven't gotten this **** together. Google has had transit direction for years...

 

[bking10]

i doubt enough people use Apple Maps for this to matter

 

[skinned66]

It's embarrassing that they still haven't gotten this **** together. Google has had transit direction for years...

And that's why my phone still has Google maps on it. Oh how I would love to dump it. I don't see that happening until at least 2017; track records, etc.

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I have to wonder why people like you continue to buy Apple's products with such a laundry list of complaints....

Just goes to show how terrible all of the other options are

 

[flat five]

i doubt enough people use Apple Maps for this to matter

there isn't a great solution for mapping including transit yet.. maybe this one will be it.

 

[flat five]

Very few companies outside the U.S. care to offer their products to the U.S.

but we can still have their good stuff shipped here.. and we generally don't have to weed through all their crap products to find the goods.. the atlantic filters it out for us or smthng.

maybe 2% of u.s products are great.. but we're bombarded with the other 98%.. other countries can pick from our 2% just like we can pick from theirs without seeing all their crap.

(not meant as some sort of counterpoint to you hDJP.. just used your post as a launching point for a tangent )

 

[peterdevries]

Totally sick of people from other countries ranting about this when the problem - as often as not - is some licensing issue, a tariff issue, or a local law or regulation within their own country that is the sticking point and not the US company itself.

These issues can be solved anywhere if they were able to solve them for the U.S. In addition, Android succeeded in many cases in solving the same problems, so are you suggesting Apple is less able to solve these than Google is?

This is about priority setting and nothing else. With the much higher prices than we are paying abroad for the same hardware we should at least get the same functionality as in the U.S.

 

[Mactendo]

Today I was seriously considering switching to Windows 10 Phone. Looking at what does Microsoft and at all Apple issues with delays, bugs, ugly and dubious UI decisions it looks right now like Windows is the future. They start making amazing stuff while Apple can't sort out basic simple things.
It seems to have huge organizational issues when it tries to do everything at once and can't properly do anything.

If you can't do transit properly leave it to others or buy someone who can. These sporadic features are dumb. ApplePay is available only in U.S., transit in some cities, flyover in others, iTunes Radio in U.S. and Australia, Siri still requires online even for the most basic things, Jony Ive now will design chairs and tables, engineers for some months can't fix core system bugs and roll back to the old code, WTF is going on??? Feels like Titanic is sinking. If they won't change anything, hard times are ahead for Apple.

 

[Analog Kid]

Why do people expect products to be available across the world all at the same time? It's never been that way in history... There's always been a "roll out". And very often there's a pilot first. You start in one corner and spread.

I suppose they could have waited to give the feature to NYC until after every 'burb in Romania was covered, but that would be senseless. Nobody benefits from the delay.

What's interesting now is that they aren't launching in a few US cities, they're launching in a few cities around the globe. It could have been SF, NYC, Chicago, Miami, Boston.

The worlds a big place folks-- gotta start somewhere.

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Feels like Titanic is sinking.

**sigh**
http://ycharts.com/companies/AAPL/market_cap

Yes, Apple is sinking because they haven't mapped your bus stop yet...

 

[flat five]

A team of 10 software engineers is not necessarily better than a team of 5 engineers.

For some projects you need quality, not quantity.

well, for this type of thing, you need data.. apple isn't sitting on all the data they need but just holding out on providing software to access it.. the software is written.
apple needs to know that in 200ft, someone needs to veer to the right at the fork in the road in BFE (literally).
i'm guessing it's issues like that which cause the holdups.

 

[littyboy]

Hey Apple! A good way to upgrade Maps is to adopt Google Maps. Done.

 

[HenryDJP]

Wtf? do you guys not have Japanese and German cars? Swedish furniture? Dutch electronics?

I live in the UK and the pretty much the only American products I own are Apple ones. In general American brands are a bit trashy. No one's depending on America, we're depending on Apple.

Right, the only american products YOU OWN. And if you think American made products are trashy then don't buy them and the point you attempted to make is completely useless. Please do me a favor and don't respond. I can't respect your kind of post.

 

[flat five]

With the much higher prices than we are paying abroad for the same hardware we should at least get the same functionality as in the U.S.

but really, as far as op topic goes, there are two u.s cities to get it in round1.. two

the rest of them are:

in a small number of cities across the United States, Canada, Europe, and China

 

[HenryDJP]

but we can still have their good stuff shipped here.. and we generally don't have to weed through all their crap products to find the goods.. the atlantic filters it out for us or smthng.

maybe 2% of u.s products are great.. but we're bombarded with the other 98%.. other countries can pick from our 2% just like we can pick from theirs without seeing all their crap.

(not meant as some sort of counterpoint to you hDJP.. just used your post as a launching point for a tangent )

Well my frustration is shared with a few others here too. Many people here from outside the U.S. complain that they don't get treated well from Apple as if their country gives the U.S. the world. They don't. Then when Apple offers it these same people complain about the price hike which is generally from VAT and the drop in the worth of currency. But we as americans living in the U.S. pay a high price hike too for german and japanese products. It's not like we get treated any better.

 

[flat five]

Many people here from outside the U.S. complain that they don't get treated well from Apple as if their country gives the U.S. the world.

meh.. that's not a nations thing.. they're just in the complainer's pool.. it's just one big pool instead of divided up by countries

 

[flat five]

Yes, Apple is sinking because they haven't mapped your bus stop yet...

they have to map the bus

idk, transit.app ...
http://transitapp.com

..does it and it's sweet.. in winter, you can watch the bus on your phone and go outside to catch it when it's rolling up the street.. you know if you can go in the store for a quick whatever without missing the next train.. etc.

it doesn't show you the schedule.. it shows you where the bus actually is.. gps

 

[Analog Kid]

With the much higher prices than we are paying abroad for the same hardware we should at least get the same functionality as in the U.S.

An 64GB iPhone 6 costs 799 euros in the Netherlands Apple store. The sales tax in Amsterdam is somewhere around 21%, based on a quick search, and I'm pretty sure VAT is included in the advertised price, so the phone is 631 euros before tax, or about 686 USD.

An unlocked 64GB iPhone 6 costs 749 USD in the US Apple store, before tax.

Am I doing the math wrong somewhere?

 

[Stella]

For TTC I'd use Rocketman. Reliable and works well. For all other mapping needs - Google.

Apple maps have let me down frequently so no longer use it.

If I type in a street address often it finds a location in the states and not local?! Finding local streets would be logical - but Apple maps just can't do that.

Apple also assumes only motorists need directions - again another Apple fail.


I'm sure Apple will perfect Maps - at some point - give it another decade...

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

Just give up on Apple Maps and give users the option to set Google Maps as the default.

 

[Ted13]

Bike maps?

So any info on whether they have done any bike maps (which is also on Google Maps) or I will have to wait until iOS 11

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Just give up on Apple Maps and give users the option to set Google Maps as the default.

Maybe you don't care, but Google Maps actually looks like crap compared to Apple Maps -- so use Google Maps all you want, but please leave the rest of us alone.

(From what I know, in fact a majority of iOS users are on Apple Maps)

 

[Yakibomb]

why is everything Apple does ... "not ready" or "delayed" or "production problems" or "supply constraints"

this is software ... they aren't building a time machine. Hire more software engineers!

Better to have a slow rollout (for software) than to have another situation like the original apple maps rollout.

 

[a0me]

So you're telling me that Apple, which is worth $700 billion, with probably billions in cash reserves, cannot get transit into their maps for the entire world? I mean why just selected cities? I mean buy a company whose apps are already doing transit mapping and implement them into Apple Maps. How hard can that be? They could have bought a few mapping companies with the amount of money they spent on Beats.

I'd really like to know how they select their "selected cities." Tokyo has one of the biggest -if not the biggest- public and private transport system in the world and yet it's not included as a "selected city." Japan is also the market where iOS enjoys the biggest market share.
I guess we'll continue using Google which somehow has had fully working maps and transit information for years.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

So any info on whether they have done any bike maps (which is also on Google Maps) or I will have to wait until iOS 11

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Maybe you don't care, but Google Maps actually looks like crap compared to Apple Maps -- so use Google Maps all you want, but please leave the rest of us alone.

(From what I know, in fact a majority of iOS users are on Apple Maps)

You're drawn to the looks of it? Really? Not the reliable transit directions, via walking, driving, subway, bus, etc? Not the superior functionality? The look of the app is certainly a personal choice, but as someone who has driven nearly the entire North American continent via the assistance of Google Maps without ever facing wrong directions (whether I'm in NYC or a super rural town in Saskatchewan), I'll gladly take Google Maps. Besides, since I'm driving or walking with headphones, it's actually the SOUND that is most important.