So I've been thinking about the Maps thing since Steve Jobs died last October. Apple has this weird position now where every product decision feels less like "what do we want to make" and more like "what do we absolutely have to make because we rely on Google for everything." Maps is exactly that decision.
Steve would've hated being beholden to anyone. Phil Schiller said it flat-out during the keynote: they're dumping Google Maps from iOS 6 because they're building something themselves. Apple Maps. Sounds corporate and boring, I know. Sounds like what a spreadsheet gets called. But the announcement was the part that actually matters this week.
They're replacing turn-by-turn navigation that actually works with their own solution. Their own tile-based rendering. Their own data collection. And here's what nobody wants to say: this is going to be rough at first.
I've tested it. Not for long, just in the keynote demo, but I know what rough looks like. The satellite imagery doesn't quite line up with the street view in some places. Addresses occasionally don't match what you put in. It's the problem with starting from scratch when Google has been doing this for over a decade. But they're doing it anyway, and I'm kind of fascinated by that decision, even if it's terrifying from a user perspective.
The real reason this is happening is control. Apple wants to own the entire stack. They don't want a Maps feature to work or not work based on what Google feels like doing that quarter. They want to own the experience. You can argue whether that's good for users right now, but long-term, this is how Apple thinks. They did it with Safari when everyone used Internet Explorer. They did it with their own chips. They're doing it here. It's not about being better tomorrow. It's about not needing Google.
What bugs me is that anyone who actually needs reliable navigation in a car is going to have a rough time for a while. iOS 6 isn't out for months. Even when it is, there's going to be a period where Apple Maps is just worse than Google Maps. Routing wonky, missing addresses, maybe some interface stuff that doesn't feel right yet. And all those people stuck with the built-in app are going to get frustrated. Maybe really frustrated.
But there's a version of iOS 6 where Apple Maps is actually pretty good. Maybe it's iOS 6.3. Maybe it's iOS 7. And when it gets there, it won't go backwards because Apple controls it. No sudden API changes from Google. No forcing this or that feature. Just Apple, iterating on their own thing.
The satellite view looked legitimately impressive in the demo. Three-dimensional buildings in some cities. Smooth zooming. Flyover mode that looks like something from a Tom Cruise movie. It's got that characteristic Apple polish on top of what might be half-baked underneath. When I saw the 3D rendering, that part felt done. That part felt like something they've been working on for years.
I'm not saying I'm happy about losing Google Maps on day one. I'm saying I understand why they're doing this, and I'm more interested in whether they pull it off than I am in whether the Maps app works perfectly at launch.
The other thing is this: they're also bundling in Siri for maps. "Get me to SoHo" and Siri figures it out. They showed it doing restaurant search through maps, integration with Yelp. There's a completeness to how they're thinking about navigation and discovery that Google hasn't exactly nailed either, if we're being honest. Google Maps is good at finding where you are and getting you somewhere. It's not always great at helping you decide you want to go there in the first place.
So. Apple Maps. It's going to be a rough couple of OS versions probably. Some people are going to have legitimately bad experiences. And in two or three years, if they nail it, we'll all be fine and they'll own something strategic. That seems like a fair trade for a Cupertino company, and maybe that's the one thing about this that makes sense.
For now? They're keeping Google Maps available separately for a while. I've got a few months before any of this matters for my iPhone. By then they'll have had a chance to improve. Probably.