Apple Maps came into play seven years ago. It comes to you along with the devices that are manufactured by Apple and runs on their operating systems, including iOS. Many people consider it as an alternative to Google Maps. However, Apple Maps is nowhere near Google Maps as of now. Hence, it is important to take a look at the failures of Apple Maps and then take a look at the strategies that the company is currently focusing in order to overcome the negative consequences that they are dealing with.
What made Apple Maps fail?
When Apple Maps was initially launched, it was not able to impress users and grab the attention of them. It is important for a new product to grab the attention of users, so that it becomes popular among them within a short period of time. Even Apple had a well-established brand name, it could not help Apple Maps to get out from the ground. That’s because Apple Maps were not good in terms of basics of mapping as well. For example, people could not use Apple Maps to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B. Due to the same reason, the Apple Maps projects can also be considered as a failure.
However, Apple Maps didn’t seem to learn the lesson out of it for a longer period of time. They have been sticking to their mistakes. Due to the same reason, Apple Maps didn’t get any opportunity at all to rise from the ground. In the meantime, Google worked really hard on their maps and introduced many new features. Even if Apple introduced those features at a later stage, they were too late. That’s because they couldn’t become the very first company to secure a market share.
When you do a head on head comparison in between Apple Maps and Google Maps, you will notice that there are many differences. One of the biggest differences is the user-friendliness. People prefer to use their mobile phones to get work done with minimum hassle. They are able to do it with ease while using Google Maps. However, people are not in a position to get that functionality done out of Apple Maps. It takes a lot of time and effort to use the Apple Maps and get hold of right information. Nobody likes to go through that hassle. This is one of the biggest reasons behind the failure of Apple Maps.
On the other hand, Apple Maps lack many information as well. That’s because it doesn’t provide too much of business information on the map. On the other hand, Google has been good at getting the support of the users to index businesses and other structures. Hence, people find it as an easy task to use Google Maps and get their work done without using Apple Maps at all.
How would the future of Apple Maps look like?
Apple Inc. has been making plans in order to compete with Google Maps and make them look better. They thought of tackling the situation through various technologies and that’s where they thought of using drones. Apple recently announced that they will be looking forward to use drones in order to improve their Maps service and give a competition to the longtime leader, Google Maps.
In order to make this venture a success, Apple has taken necessary measures in order to collaborate with a group of data collection and robotics experts. These experts would use unmanned aerial vehicles, which are commonly known as drones in order to gather data that is required for updates. Both Apple and Google are now using motor vehicles that are equipped with high tech gear in order to collect data that is required for maps. As per the engineers at Apple, using the technology followed by Google is a time-consuming and an expensive process. Drones can assist them to save both time as well as money. However, they have considered of it as an excellent investment because gathering more data would tempt people to use Apple Maps instead of Google.
The efficiency associated with drones has motivated the research scientists at Apple in order to use this technology. In other words, drones have the ability to help the scientists cover a bigger range within a short period of time. This is the reason why they can save a considerable amount of money as well as time during the data collection process.
Apple has also created a team to carry out this project and they are in the process of making plans in order to make it a success. For instance, they are not just planning to cover information about streets and geographical landmarks with the help of drones. They are also looking forward to capture critical street information with the assistance of drones. They include traffic and sign changes as well. This requires a considerable amount of technological expertise and it seems that Apple has already been gifted with it. Therefore, they will not find it as a hard task to carry forward the project.
The information captured through these drones can be extremely important for the engineers at Apple. The primary objective of the effort is to make Maps application running on macOS and iOS devices a better one. Information captured by the drones would be directly sent to the expert teams in United States, who would upload them to the Maps servers. Then the data would be made available for the public in order to make their lives easy when using the app. Apple replaced Google Maps in iOS by 2012 and it is the high time for them to think about competing with Google Maps. Otherwise, the Apple users would tend to use Google Maps due to lack of data and features. Hopefully, the drones could help Apple and keep them away from frustration.