Gassee on Maps in iOS 6

Written by

Jean-Louis Gassée for Monday Note:

The ridicule that Apple has suffered following the introduction of the Maps application in iOS 6 is largely self-inflicted. The demo was flawless, 2D and 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, spectacular flyovers…but not a word from the stage about the app’s limitations, no self-deprecating wink, no admission that iOS Maps is an infant that needs to learn to crawl before walking, running, and ultimately lapping the frontrunner, Google Maps. Instead, we’re told that Apple’s Maps may be “the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.”

Gassée is the former president of Apple’s Products Division and founder of Be Inc. He’s currently in the venture capital business.

His point is that Apple shouldn’t have tried to convince anyone that Maps was superlative, but should have been up front about its limitations. That sounds uncommon for Apple, but consider that the company has referred to the Apple TV as a “hobby” and Siri as a beta, so it wouldn’t be unprecedented for Apple to admit that Maps needs a lot of work.



  • Sharon_Sharalike

    No doubt about that. I’m sure if they had it to do over they would have shown how good it is when it’s good, then followed up by making fun of places where it wasn’t yet. That would have taken off a lot of the heat.

    They still should do it. If you know you’re going to be the butt of a joke, it goes over a lot easier if you’re the one making the jokes.

    Still can’t wait to get my iPhone 5, of course :-)

  • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

    I agree. Approach in messaging is a big deal.

  • http://twitter.com/int3nsive Int3nsive

    One man makes difference. RIP Steve Jobs.

    • gjgustav

      Can we stop this, please? Siri, MobileMe, “AntennaGate”, the iPod HiFi, and others all happened “under Steve’s Watch.”

      If anyone has any insight into “what Steve would have done,” they’d be a billionaire.

      • http://www.johncblandii.com John C. Bland II

        Yep.

        Int3nsive, read this then return here: http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/09/21/lazy-bullshit-reporting/. :)

      • http://twitter.com/int3nsive Int3nsive

        I agree with you. But im not talking about technical problems but about “design details”. For example, the new iOS AppStore looks like a “Google App”. It’s great on the iPad but very ugly on the iPhone.

        • kibbles

          Ping? the hockey puck mouse? plenty of design problems under Steve’s watch as well. as he had stated — he’s just one person and Apple is a collaborative effort, and they’re only human.

        • gjgustav

          SJ was human, and imperfect, just like everyone else. He did release design issues under his watch. Go back to design of Titanium Powerbook – beautiful, but first iteration had worse WiFi reception than the iBooks. And the maps are very much a technical issue, not a design one.

          • http://twitter.com/int3nsive Int3nsive

            Imperfect human, like the rest of us.. indeed. But he was a real visionary and a great leader, like any good company needs.

            But take a look what Apple was with him (1983)… without him (almost bankrupt with crappy stuff) and with him again… yes.. “one man” made the difference. And im not saying that he worked alone, but choose the best people to make everything possible. Like I said, a great leader and a person that learned very well with his mistakes.

            Tim Cook seems to me a great person, but I think he’s not a visionary and we will see much more apple mistakes than when SJ was there… an unbalanced failures vs success.

  • adrianoconnor

    I wonder if we’ll see Jean-Louis Gassée back at Apple yet. I loved reading in the Isaacson book the chapter on what happened in 1997 when it was a competition between Jobs/Next and Gassée/Be to effectively rescue Apple.

    • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

      What does Gassée now do that Apple would need him for?

      • adrianoconnor

        Nothing really, I guess, but it just seems like he’d be a good fit if Apple ever needed somebody new to lead things. His posts on Apple are by far and away the most insightful of any ‘analyst’ currently out there, and he does have some history.

        • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

          I agree about the value of his writing, but I have a bit of difficulty imagining him interested in returning to Apple, in any capacity.

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Agreed. “Mapgate” is now simply one more half-issue on Android fans’ shit-talking-points list, and that could have been largely headed off by more candor about the feature.

  • Louieboy242000

    This is the apple trap, they just want google to take advantage to submit the app with better mapping applications. It will be beneficial for IOS users which is missing from before compare to android phones. Let’s see if they fall into that trap. They are offerring an apple bite to fall in to place please remember apple is a hardware company whatever best apps available will be beneficial for them :)

    • MacsenMcBain

      Gah. Would you mind re-posting this in your native language? I think we’d stand a better shot translating it ourselves, seeing what the online translation services have done to it.