News: A Letter From Apple CEO Tim Cook on Maps

After some of the complaints, growing pains, drama, and jokes about Apple’s new Maps in iOS 6, the company’s CEO, Tim Cook, has published an open letter on the subject. It’s rather honest and provides some explanations and alternatives.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, with iOS 6 Apple moved away from Google’s Map tiles, found in prior iOS versions, and there have been some issues with incorrect information and general bugginess. The problem is that many rely on the maps on their smartphones, so accuracy is important. I honestly believe that Apple is working to improve their maps as fast as they can and some word had to come from the company itself before this became a bigger public relations nightmare.

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