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Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

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Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#161

Post by eco »

acchow wrote: post #47
hpagey wrote: post #13

Actually I think Apple won here. Google was refusing to release a turn by turn direction update to their apps. By developing an Apple Map App with turn by turn, they kind of forced GooG to provide it on iOS platform. Also, it is very difficult for google to ignore ios users.

> Google was refusing to release a turn by turn direction update to their apps. Your choice of wording here is rather misleading. Apple wrote the old Maps app. Google refused to allow Apple to add turn-by-turn to the old maps app. We will never know the true reasons, but it was likely due to Apple refusing to relinquish control of what was displayed to the user.

We do know some of the reasons negotiations for adding turn-by-turn broke down[1]. Google wanted more branding and Latitude support. Latitude seemed like a weird thing to demand since it's not a particularly useful feature until you realize that it's just something to get people to turn on Location History (which is the secret sauce that makes all these nice location based Google Now cards work).

[1] http://allthingsd.com/20120926/apple-google-maps-talks-crash...

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#162

Post by chucknelson »

tolmasky wrote: post #133
BryantD wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"why would someone go ahead and use Apple's terrible search engine to help them improve their search?" Because at the end of the day I want to make choices that result in more flexibility down the line. I do not want to live in a world where Apple is the only OS provider for mobile devices. Likewise, I don't want to live in a world in which Google is the only reasonable choice for map searches.

So is your strategy to always use the worse of two services to ensure competition for the future?

This. Arguing to use an inferior product so that better products don't succeed "too much" isn't how things work.

Markets work this stuff out, you don't necessarily have to balance market share and consequences in your head (not that you as an individual really matter that much in the end anyway!). Just enjoy the products you like.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#163

Post by angryasian »

kyrra wrote: post #24
hpagey wrote: post #13

Actually I think Apple won here. Google was refusing to release a turn by turn direction update to their apps. By developing an Apple Map App with turn by turn, they kind of forced GooG to provide it on iOS platform. Also, it is very difficult for google to ignore ios users.

How is that a win? Apple got egg on their face from all the bad press. They had to shell out a ton of money for 2 map companies they bought, money for all the map data they are buying, plus all the engineering resources to create the product. Google Maps lets google have full branding on the iphone and can gather all the data they want from users. And they can have all the branding on the Maps that they want. If I re…

>Apple wasn't too happy about paid advertisements appearing for map search result

Curious where are there paid advertisements anywhere on google maps browser or mobile ?

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#164

Post by coob »

IgorPartola wrote: post #132

How many startups just said "ah fuck it!" now that Google Maps is back on iOS? Back when Apple removed Google maps I thought there would be four stages to this fiasco: 1. Apple Maps are introduced and nobody likes them. Google Maps are nixed and some bullshit reason is given for not letting them back into the ecosystem for a while. 2. A bunch of people see an opportunity to create something that Apple will buy. They…

…you think Apple are going to stop wanting to improve their maps?

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#165

Post by eco »

benlower wrote: post #68

Nokia Maps give one the ability to download maps locally to the phone. Do either Google Maps or iOS Maps have that feature?

Google Maps on Android has great offline support. Offline support isn't in this first Google Maps release for iOS but they seem to be indicating it's coming.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#166

Post by coob »

andybak wrote: post #74
recursive wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not on my cell phone.

I think you're mistaken. They are on Android so it seems odd they wouldn't be. The ability to zoom to arbitrary levels with no pixellation seems to imply it most definitely is vector.

On iOS it appears they're a mixture of bitmap tiles and vector text. I definitely see pixelation of roads at certain zoom levels.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#167

Post by jmspring »

IgorPartola wrote: post #132

How many startups just said "ah fuck it!" now that Google Maps is back on iOS? Back when Apple removed Google maps I thought there would be four stages to this fiasco: 1. Apple Maps are introduced and nobody likes them. Google Maps are nixed and some bullshit reason is given for not letting them back into the ecosystem for a while. 2. A bunch of people see an opportunity to create something that Apple will buy. They…

A quality maps app seems like one of those audacious undertakings given how much there are to them. Sure, sources like OSM help quite a bit, but the amount of data needed (be it through one's own data acquisition, partnering, licensing, etc) is pretty massive. This is one of the main reasons the iOS maps had problems.

There are already niche apps for things like public transport, though you may need an app per city/region. Even those niche apps aren't always accurate -- the NYC transit apps (2 or 3 different once) I tried while there earlier this year didn't pick up on station closures due to maintenance.

Maps/transit routing/etc is an interesting problem, just one that seems difficult to do right as a startup (on the scale of ios or google maps).

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#168

Post by jug6ernaut »

sbuk wrote: post #149
jug6ernaut wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh i agree with you, i simply posed these questions to counter the claim that "Apple Maps" will catch up with Google Maps in a few years. There is a lot to it and to make such a blanket claim with nothing to back it up is pretty weak. The questions were meant to point this out.

By the same token, stating that Apple will never catch them is pretty weak too. in fact this whole line of thinking is pretty weak. It really is a school yard "my dad is bigger than your dad..." style of reasoning.

I never stated that? The line of thinking was to not make assumptions. And if they were to what were they basing there assumptions on. Not sure how that is school yard logic.

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#169

Post by mdemare »

ma2rten wrote: post #92
bstar77 wrote: post #50

Edit: somehow I screwed up my response, should be a response to @kjackson2012. Apple's main issues are with their location information from TomTom. If apple is able to partner with a company with better data, these types of problems should not be nearly as bad. Here's where Apple's maps product is better... The maps are vector based so there is not such a huge dependence on a data connection. I live near the pine bar…

> If apple is able to partner with a company with better data, these types of problems should not be nearly as bad. There is none. As far as I know, there are two major providers for map data. One is TeleAtlas, which is now owned by TomTom. The other one is Navtec from the US. TeleAtlas is considered slightly better in terms of quality, as far as I know. Google Maps used to use a combination of both providers. Howeve…

And the TomTom data is fine. When Apple maps fails to find a POI, I open my TomTom app, and it always knows it - offline too. Apple's screw up is giving TomTom a bad name...

Re: Google Maps becomes the App Store’s most popular free app in 7 hours

#170

Post by mikeash »

criley wrote: post #105
mdc wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between not having a smart phone and having a smart phone that actively misleads you.

No, there's not as big a difference as you're implying -- because ALL mapping data is imperfect, therefore ALL smartphones are capable of actively misleading you. And paper maps can mislead, as well! (I'm trying to think how many "this place is closed/moved/never here" notices I sent Google Maps myself, because of the number of times I've been misled by Google Maps!) A smartphone is not a replacement for common sense…

The danger factor is one you must mitigate using outside circumstances, certainly.

But aside from that there's also the lost-time factor. If Apple Maps misleads me far more often than other products (which it does), then I waste far more time (and gasoline) using it. That is a real problem with it, and one that cannot be answered with "ALL Mapping data is imperfect".

As for Apple Maps being better than the baseline from five years ago, is there a way for that statement to be useful that doesn't require access to a time machine?

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