WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]
top | item 4548571

Apple Botches China and Japan Maps in iOS 6

158 points| allenwlee | 13 years ago |techinasia.com | reply

73 comments

order
[+] w1ntermute|13 years ago|reply
This is especially galling for the Japanese. Not only are they valuable customers due to their frequent cell phone purchases and rabid desire for brand-name products (including Apple, of course), but a quarter of the Japanese population (and the main target market) lives in Tokyo, where people are almost entirely dependent on public transit to get around. With iOS 6, there are no built in directions!

Of course, Apple apologists will jump to say that you can just get a 3rd party app, but that simply doesn't cut it. Google Maps provided a door-to-door solution for directions, which makes a big difference when you don't know what the closest train station to an address is. Moreover, the ability to see the total door-to-door time and compare it to the cost of the trip made it easy to select the optimal route (based on a combination of price and time).

And here are some of the amusing mistakes in the database[0]:

* "McDonalds" and "Pachinko Gundam" train stations

* A station not attached to any railway lines

* No Osaka station (this is a really big station)

* Place names in Chinese and Korean

* Haneda Airport (busiest airport in Japan) is mislabeled as 「大王製紙」 ― "Great King Paper Manufacturer" (this one has gotten a lot of laughs)

* Narita Airport (2nd busiest airport) completely missing

For those who can read Japanese, there's a good 2chan thread archive[1] of Japanese netizens taking the piss out of Apple Maps.

0: http://www.japanmobiletech.com/2012/09/ios-6-maps-fail-in-ja...

1: http://gahalog.2chblog.jp/archives/52132765.html

[+] flatline3|13 years ago|reply
> Of course, Apple apologists will jump to say that you can just get a 3rd party app ...

I don't think Apple "apologists" will be jumping in on this one. In this particular case, Apple has, objectively, significantly reduced (or outright eliminated) the usability of a core feature of their phones.

Anyone in a significant population center will find this to be incredibly irksome, and by the very definition of population centers, there are a lot of people in significant population centers.

[+] minikomi|13 years ago|reply
Also, the lack of block numbers and no labelling of "landmark" shops - eg Lawson, Mosburger, KFC etc. - makes them impossible to navigate.

Osaka can't feel to bad - Tokyo station is also missing. I guess the Shinkansen plowed through them both last week...

[+] ghshephard|13 years ago|reply
Not really an apologist - I think the new Apple Maps are definitely a step backwards for many - but, I've exclusively used my iPhone for directions in the Bay Area, Vancouver, Chicago, and London - I'm directionally challenged, and don't drive - so I rely on my iPhone to get anywhere - and it wasn't until the new IOS 6 was released with all the furor, that I discovered you could get transit directions through the map app. I've been using iBart, iCaltrain, The Tube App, The El Maps, --- all these third party apps.

In four years of traveling to all these major cities, and using my iPhone to get around nonstop on mass transit - never once occurred to me to use Google Maps to get transit directions.

[EDIT: I just tried a pretty simple trip that I use iBart and iCaltrain all the time for - My Office in Redwood City to Lake Merrit in Oakland - Consist of a 15 minute Walk to Caltrain, Transfer to Bart, Get off at 17th and Broadway. Should be simple - Train to Bart, Bart to 17th.

The answer in Google Maps: "Directions Not Available. Directions could not be found between these locations.

I guess I haven't been missing much - or maybe Transit Directions aren't fully available for the Bay Area.

Edit 2: Tried this with the new Map App on IOS6 - It brought up CaltrainMe and "HopStop Transit Directions" - downloaded HopStop (Free) - HopStop provided me with a full Mass Transit route from RWC to Lake Merrit - "Walk to Caltrain, Caltain to Bart, Walk to Lake Merrit"

Actually - looking closer - it gave me Five different Mass Transit routes - Some of them using Bart+Caltrain, Others using Light Rail. This is pretty cool, actually. :-)

So - for my limited example, getting to Lake Merrit in Oakland from My office In Redwood City - Google Maps didn't work, the IOS 6 solution did.]

[+] Steko|13 years ago|reply
I searched for the airports, the search is still borked for non-Japanese but they're on the map and show up if you search in Japanese. Airport codes are a mixed bag, 'NRT' returns narita airport correctly but 'HND' gives me a Nevada result. So I don't know if the claims above that they aren't even on the map or return factories are inaccurate or they've already started fixing the more egregious results. Probably fixes I'd guess.
[+] olalonde|13 years ago|reply
To be fair, Google Maps in China isn't great either. See "Map View" vs "Satellite View" here: https://maps.google.com/?ll=22.637323,114.030954&spn=0.0.... It's off by a few hundred meters (the corresponding satellite view for the previous map view is actually here: https://maps.google.com/?ll=22.640363,114.025936&spn=0.0...). I assume Google is aware of this issue since they don't overlay map data over their satellite view like they do almost everywhere else around the world. The fact that they can't drive their Street View cars in China doesn't help either.
[+] prewett|13 years ago|reply
My Chinese friends tell me that there is a government requirement that maps databases have an offset. I'm guessing the Google car isn't permitted to drive around in China, because they lease maps from Mapabc [1], which presumably has the offset. If you go to ditu.google.cn you get accurate maps without the offset (but it's only in Chinese).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps (see the "Copyright" section)

[+] veidr|13 years ago|reply
Nothing in this space can be great in China; accurate maps are illegal.

Japan under iOS 6, on the other hand, is pretty inexcusable. Japan has led the world in map accuracy and detail since the dawning of the GPS era.

[+] Simucal|13 years ago|reply
I don't have a source handy but China has been known to censor highly accurate map data because they considered it a threat to national security. I've seen satellite photos overlayed with map data where almost all the streets were off by many meters or were slightly skewed.
[+] mootothemax|13 years ago|reply
This is making me seriously reconsider buying an iPhone 5 when it becomes available here in Poland next week. Maps are a vital part of my smartphone activities, and Google's offering have been really impressive.

If Apple can't get this right for a market as big and smartphone-friendly as Japan, I'm struggling to think how they'll do so for Poland.

Edit: just to clarify, I don't care in the slightest about the 3d-image errors, but the problems with directions look incredibly painful, missing roads will be a huge hindrance, and the disappearance of points of interests, well, that's just plain annoying.

[+] denniedarko|13 years ago|reply
The easy workaround for the moment would be to place a shortcut to maps.google.com on your iPhone home screen. Then you don't need to use the default maps if you feel they aren't up to scratch.
[+] myko|13 years ago|reply
If I were you I'd wait a bit to see what the next Nexus offers, and/or for Google's version of Maps which is sure to come out on iOS soon-ish (though lacking the level of integration Apple Maps provides).
[+] hoi|13 years ago|reply
They made another mistake for Hong Kong.. The maps are in English only... many Taxi drivers won't be able to take you where you want because they only know it in Chinese and pointing it out on an English only map doesn't help.
[+] objclxt|13 years ago|reply
You'll have "Display English Names Only" enabled. If you go into the Settings app, select "Maps", and make sure "Always English" is set to Off you'll get non-English street names for non-English countries (Hong Kong, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, etc etc).
[+] swang|13 years ago|reply
What a disaster for Apple. But of course Apple can't admit fault and the people who are screwed are the users.

Steve would have never let this application go through.

[+] hrktb|13 years ago|reply
Just as Steve never allowed a Japan launch with a botched autocomplete feature, he never let the phone ship without standard emoticons support, he never let a phone application that crashes when taking calls go through, just as he never would have replaced a locally working voice control system with a half botched network based voice assistant.

Apple's 1.0 products were all just so polished until now.

This is the first time perhaps that the new feature has to match solid expectations, but it's still a 1.0 feature. Sorry for the tone, but why all the drama on something that isn't either a surprise nor a unfixable problem...

[+] lawdawg|13 years ago|reply
The fact that Steve let "Ping" go through means we should probably stop using the "Steve would have never let XYZ go through" meme ...
[+] cryptoz|13 years ago|reply
A lot of people have been wondering when Steve's absence will really show. I think Apple's been coasting just fine this last year, but iOS 6 is the first clear signal that they risk losing their way - or already have lost their way.

Personally, as a Linux/Android person, I thought Apple would be fine and had diminished Steve's influence in my head. I may have been wrong.

[+] tvon|13 years ago|reply
Eh, if he was gone before the iPhone 4 people would have said the same thing about "antennagate".
[+] ryannielsen|13 years ago|reply
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you didn't personally know SJ. If that's correct, then you can't say anything about what he would or wouldn't have done.

Apple made mistakes and missteps with SJ at the helm; they'll make mistakes and missteps with someone else at the helm. It really is as simple as that.

[+] mun2mun|13 years ago|reply
Do you think Steve would have tested the new map application in all countries iPhones are sold? I am sure Steve would have taken same decision as he have already took 'thermonuclear` stance against Android hence indirectly Google.
[+] acuozzo|13 years ago|reply
Don't forget: release early, release often is TheRightWayToDoIt!
[+] mun2mun|13 years ago|reply
Problem is that it is the content that Apple have no control. Main reason of Apple's great user experience is full control over every aspect of hardware/application. Apple should have heavily tested TomTom's map data across various country before ditching Google map. Ironically Apple is getting same criticism as Microsoft got over the year for BSOD in Windows(most of the time it was for faulty driver/hardware which Microsoft didn't control).
[+] olalonde|13 years ago|reply
This doesn't seem a very good strategy for a hardware product such as the iPhone though and definitely not the modus operandi of Apple.
[+] xster|13 years ago|reply
Another part of Steve playing god giving each country an island of its own?

Did use iOS 6 in China a month ago... pure garbage. Mapquest was better 5 years ago.

[+] dlundqvist|13 years ago|reply
Do you know if you used TomTom or AutoNavi maps? In my limited testing not long ago TomTom was pretty bad here in China and AutoNavi was like a black hole out side of it.