“This is such a non-issue. Google Maps isn’t perfect. If people scoured Google Maps as carefully as they scoured Apple’s Maps, they would find things that are not quite right,” Fader points out. “For the vast majority [of iPhone users], it’s fine. They know it’s early in the game and it gets better. If people want Google Maps, they can access it. It’s not that [Apple] blocked Google Maps; it just doesn’t come pre-installed. People will forget about this. This is nothing compared to ‘antenna-gate’. Even that is entirely forgotten.”
Fader is referring to a 2010 incident in which a faulty antenna design in the iPhone 4 caused degraded reception. Apple had wrapped the antenna around the device to minimise size, but users gripping the phone encountered signal interference. The tech company ultimately gave away plastic bands that go around the iPhone and sent out a software fix. In many cases, early adopters of new tech devices are more forgiving of glitches because “they expect the brand-new model to be kind of buggy”, Fader says, noting that the same cannot be said of other consumer products, such as movies or books, that have to do well at launch because sales can quickly tank.
When Jobs apologised for the faulty antenna, he was criticised for pointing out in his comeuppance that rival smartphones had similar issues. In a statement addressing the problems with the Maps application, current CEO Tim Cook advised iPhone owners to seek out other mapping programs, suggesting downloads of MapQuest, Microsoft’s Bing and yes, Google Maps, until Apple’s mapping program improved.
Who wins – and who loses?
In the flap over Maps, both Apple and Google are winners – and losers, Wharton experts say. In the short run, Google – where developers hope to finish a maps application for iOS devices by the end of the year – is losing direct access to millions of iPhone users. Meanwhile, the iPhone 5 continues to enjoy robust sales despite the bad press for Apple Maps.
Google Maps will no longer be as easily accessible on iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. When users search for directions within another app that involves maps – Yelp, for example – it will link to Apple Maps. To get to Google Maps, one has to separately access it through a search engine and retype the address being sought. If users decline to take those extra steps, Google stands to lose any benefit associated with tracking their whereabouts. Thus far, around 100 million people have downloaded iOS6, according to Apple.
The good news for Google, however, is that Apple’s latest moves could cast a permanent stain upon its corporate character. “The one silver lining is that Google looks like a victim here, and Apple looks like a bully,” Fader says.
“From a public relations standpoint, Apple [appears] evil and greedy” for kicking out Google Maps, a popular app beloved by users. “I do think Apple made a mistake. It was dumb for them to walk away from Google just for more or less political reasons. I don’t think it was for a good business reason. A lot of it was posturing on their part, trying to send signals to Google and to the consumer that we [Apple] are self-sufficient.”
Whether Apple booted Google for personal or business reasons, or both, it took a risk by rolling out a flawed product. But its saving grace is that maps, though important, is only one of many features of iOS6. According to Eric Clemons, a Wharton professor of operations and information management, a company can usually get away with rolling out an inferior product if it is bundled with other applications and if it takes effort for consumers to switch to an alternative. When Microsoft introduced its Excel spreadsheet program, for example, it was widely considered to be inferior to Lotus 123. But the software got a boost by being bundled into a suite of other programs, Clemons notes. In the same way, most iPhone users will likely put up with Apple Maps because they like many of the phone’s other features. “No one is going to abandon an iPhone for Android just for that reason,” Clemons says.
The value of Maps
Apple may have stumbled out of the gate, but it is a fallacy to think that Google Maps cannot be overtaken, Clemons suggests. “Do you remember when no one was expected to be able to catch MapQuest? Google can be caught.” To be sure, Google has a good lead: Its StreetView cars mounted with cameras already have driven five million miles recording streets and landmarks to be incorporated into Google Maps, according to a September 6 article in The Atlantic. In a statement addressing the loss of the application from iOS, the search giant described Google Maps as “the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world. Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser or operating system.”
