Today Apple’s CEO Tim Cook released a letter to its customers
To our customers,
At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.
There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.
While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.
Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.
Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO
It is unfortunate to see such a defective product to be launched with such a fanfare in the market, when people the tech world the media and die-hard Apple fans who line up at stores before the launch of the iPhone and other Apple products were expecting so much from the product.
Disappointment and frustration from the product could not be explained to the level which actual iPhone 5 and iOS6 users have been through.
iPhone 5, being one of the most anticipated device of 2012 was disappointing in features that it lacked, be it NFC or other features.
However, the iPhone 5 was actually the first product that i have ever seen which was launched with such an in built defect with the OS (Maps) .
Steve Jobs when he had released a defect in the iPhone screen, that it got scratched when people put their keys in their pocket it would scratch the screen surface, he directly contacted Wendell Weeks CEO of Corning, which manufactures the famous Gorilla Glass and the glasses in iPhone were changed when the launch was near in June 2006.
This was the dedication that he had put in to get the best product with the perfect finish to the consumers. Now, we find this totally missing here in case of launch of iOS6.
iPhone 5 was proudly launched with the iOS 6 where Apple was proudly flaunting the removal of Google Maps and including its Own built of Apple Maps, with data from Waze and TomTom (Source: TechCrunch).
What proved was completely disgusting, the maps were pathetic and social media responded.
Checkout some amazing defects at : theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com
This apology by Tim Cook to iPhone users is just weird, it actually tells users that
we remove Google Maps as we replaced with a faulty one, saving us thousands of dollars (Probably) so that we could crowd- source the data and use it, till we are improving it, you can use alternatives
Other blogs may find this apology humble because it mentions Google Maps and other map providers. Were the Apple users going to sit and watch the release of a fixed map ? they would have and many have started using other map options. Transport services realized the pain of iOS6 users and physical maps were distributed for the convenience of iOS6 users:
Only few things i can wonder is:
- How could Apple actually release an OS which was faulty ?
- Did they not test it at all ? Or they knowingly released it faulty ?
- Were they trying to leverage their fanbase and crowd source data ? They could have easily told this to their users and they would have loved to get together with Apple. Considering how foolish Apple customers are to pre-order a defective product ?
- If there was someone who shared the vision of Steve, would they have released such a product ?
- I am not sure if Apple can be sued for this defective os.