Apple Maps vs Google Maps apps for iPhone: fact and fiction

The news reports regarding Apple’s shift from Google Maps to Apple Maps, the quality of the latter, the firing of Scott Forstall, and the return of the former have been coming fast and furious. Confused? You should be. Nearly all of those reports have been inaccurate, many of them bordering on fiction. Some of the more bizarre claims have read like science fiction. So in order to set the record straight regarding Apple and its Maps apps, here’s a look at the FACTS you need to know and the FICTION you need to ignore…

FICTION: Because of Apple Maps, no one updated their iPhone to iOS 6.

FACT: 50% of all iPhones were updated to iOS 6 within the first week.

FICTION: Apple Maps is a disaster which will get you lost in a desert.

FACT: Apple Maps is no more or less accurate than Google Maps. Both apps have occasional kooky flaws which, if intentionally misrepresented by journalists, can falsely make either app appear to be unreliable…

FICTION: Apple fired Scott Forstall because of the Maps app.

FACT: Apple fired Scott Forstall, who happened to be on the Maps team, because he was so widely disliked that top executives were leaving the company to get away from him. The day Apple announced Forstall’s departure, one of the previously departed executives returned to the company.

FICTION: Apple dumped Google Maps because of Android.

FACT: Apple dumped Google Maps because the limited data provided by Google kept the app from having any advanced features…

OPINION: The new “Google Maps” app released for iPhone, which was designed by Google itself, has perhaps the most awful interface of any major app ever released and was clearly never tested on humans. Forget about data accuracy; you’ll get lost because you can’t figure out how to use it. And it still has less features than Apple Maps does.

CONCLUSION: There is no reason at all to download the new Google Maps app, other than to see for yourself just how bad it is.