The article seems to completely ignore one simple thing that guarantees that Apple Maps can never fully compete with Google Maps: Apple Maps is only available on Apple devices. Today, iOS represents 27.5% of all mobile users, meaning that the best they can hope for is 1/3 market share. That assumes that Apple doesn't make any radical changes to their closed ecosystem philosophies.
I wonder what percent of app downloads are re-downloads onto new/wiped devices. I've had Google Maps since it first came out, back before Apple had its own maps. So every time I purchase a new iPhone or iPad, or restore one of my existing devices, Google Maps gets another download.
It's possible these re-downloads are utterly swamped by people picking apps out of the app store. But it can't hurt to have a huge base of legacy installs that reduplicate every time someone gets a new device.
Maps are social. When I search for a place in Google maps, I get reviews, pictures, it feels alive.
When I search for a place on Apple Maps, firstly it may not even exist because who cares about Apple maps, and secondly it's likely to have few reviews or photos.
I just tried with a local restaurant. Google maps has dozens of photos and 100 reviews. Apple maps has 1 review and no photos.
If you just need a satnav, then Apple maps is OK I guess, if it has the place you're going to. But why take the risk? I never open the thing.
Apple Maps shows reviews from Yelp, at least for the POIs I’ve seen. Although I don’t trust Yelp reviews entirely, I trust them more than Google reviews.
> So even Apple users don't want to use Apple Maps.
I don't think that this follows from your claim. I have both Google Maps and Apple Maps but use Google Maps only for street view. I use Apple Maps for nearly everything including navigation.
Or, like me, you download Google Maps as a backup map app. Not having a map available is higher risk than most apps breaking; it’s worth it to have a second option if Apple goes down.
TIL. Never noticed (I do half my searches with DDG).
But it's even more terrible than Google Maps. It still has the bike shop that closed over 3 1/2 years ago and not the new shop. I just found a "restaurant" that is the actual address of a local food truck it seems (German legal imprint), and the "book shop" I did not know about seems to be a warehouse because I can't find the address on their home page. But at least some of the shops are correct...
