Apple Maps Launches With Wrong Locations and Dangerous Routes, Forstall Fired
What happened
Apple replaced Google Maps with its own mapping app in iOS 6. Apple Maps launched with cities misidentified, landmarks in wrong locations, melting bridges, and dangerously incomplete navigation data. Australian police warned users not to follow its directions to an outback location. Tim Cook publicly apologised and suggested using Google Maps.[1]
What went wrong
Apple launched a mapping product built on insufficient data and with inadequate quality assurance against a competitor that had years of mapping refinement. The launch was reportedly driven by a desire to remove Google Maps from iOS rather than by readiness of the replacement product.[1]
Lesson learned
Data quality is the product in navigation applications. No amount of visual polish compensates for incorrect geodata. Shipping an inferior replacement for an established product destroys trust more severely than not shipping at all — users remember dangerous navigation suggestions.
Sources
- [1] Apple / The Verge Apple Maps Launches With Wrong Locations and Dangerous Routes, Forstall Fired