According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has fired the manager responsible for the new Maps application that cast a negative shadow over the iPhone 5 launch. Richard Williamson, who was in charge of Maps, was relieved of his duties by Senior VP Eddy Cue.
The Maps application was a rare misstep by Apple, forcing a public apology by Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook acknowledged the app was not in keeping with their goal of creating the best products in the world and vowed to “…keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.
This adds to the major shake-ups within Apple management this year. Last month, both Scott Forstall and John Browett were dismissed. A replacement for Williamson has not been named as of yet.
Source: Bloomberg
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Sounds like a ‘Dilbert’ storyline – hire a guy to fire the guy tasked with developing a product no one really needed in as short a time frame as possible (and then see it crash and burn), rather than question the bosses as to why the product was needed in the first place.
Apple wanted turn by turn and google said no we’ll keep it for Android only. The best way to fix a product such as Maps would be to get it into the publics hand. The best navigation app by far would have to be Navigon by my opinion, not google maps.
Recently, Apple has made quite a name for embedding unwanted / Beta
products into their iOS – and its simply not on. If they want users to
fix their bugs or try Beta products, leave them for user-install in a
Category of the App Store.
Yes, there are bugs / significant cartography issues that will get worked out – eventually – and, yes, Google Maps in their early days had issues too. But Google never forced you to install it on an OS, overwriting a mature and functioning program. And Google now has years (and thousands of people in-company) over the Apple Map app.
Apple’s response was to jam a disparate group of cartography companies’ data into their program and do it badly, all so the pointy-headed bosses could brag they have turn-by-turn?
Apple users pay a premium price for their products and should expect better than half-baked apps embedded into their devices that they are responsible for improving.
They did nothing wrong everything Apple does is over emphasized. I didn’t like Google maps on my iOS device so I bought Navigon. Maps is free and Google doesn’t force anyone to use a mapping device you say, I don’t see the difference from then having Google Maps as default on their Android OS. Now if you we’re also making reference to Siri being something no one needs I would beg to disagree. Siri is very helpful especially when driving, nothing compares just try and use the Note 2 or Galaxy S3 to open an app or do an intelligent task and you will understand the big difference. Is it perfect, no but it’s significantly before than when it was first released due to user real time feedback. Give Apple a break, everything they do is overemphasized while other companies do the same with no one caring at all.