Apple Regress with iOS6 Maps App

The slightly overlooked (thanks to the iPhone5) iOS upgrade to version 6 has been taken to across the world this week with, amongst others, one major change: Google Maps is gone and is replaced with Apple's own version of Maps.

It has a fresh look to it with different colours and different fonts and there is a very nice 3D mode and added navigation (using TomTom's very successful data).  But there are some major problems that have arisen with the new app and many Apple users are not happy.

First, in Lincoln itself, there are strange omissions.  The University is no longer acknowledged (though the infamous Festival Gardens make it into the satellite view!), just a brown area, and it is situated next to the 'Brayford Basin', the old name for the Brayford Pool waterfront next to the campus.  There are nice icons identifying shops, petrol stations and kebab houses but certain establishments, such as churches, are missing. However, things get much worse elsewhere.

Certain locations have been misplaced, lost detail in resolution or become hospitals and that's just in Britain.  There is a whole website now dedicated to the failings of the software, including wobbly roads, new land and cloud covered satellite coverage.

The low resolution view of Loughborough in Apple Maps.

It seems Apple have taken a huge step back in ditching Google Maps in favour of their own app and it will only be a matter of time when Google release their own app to replace the stock Apple one.  As with the YouTube app, Apple's ditching of vital Google products looks like it may backfire on them.