That's a pretty bold statement. When Apple Maps first launched this was certainly true. But Apple Maps has improved significantly since then, to the point where whether Apple Maps or Google Maps is better depends on where you are and what data you're trying to find.
One other thing - while in navigation mode with Apple maps, try panning the map around, or even zooming. Let me know how that goes.
I wish this were the case. I'm running the iOS 10 beta on a 6S+ and gave Maps several seconds to load this area of upstate NY.
http://i.imgur.com/wi7HRqe.jpg
The dark gray grid persists. Yea, it's the first beta, but I have mostly only noticed changes in the interface and not the actual map data.
And Apple's inability to do any sort of decent fuzzy matching is legion.
Be it in search or in maps, google services are auto correcting so much stuff. You can be in France and search for 'Akita', and the first result will be some japanese restaurant that happen to have the keyword in the name, with the more reputable and perfect match half a screen below.
Of course a lot of user might actually be looking for restaurants, but it's so frustrating this moment where you have to think "I really mean what I typed in this box" and going through the "what was the syntax to value more the keyword".
And then as it detects your preferences the behavior changes and you are left wondering what's happening (like how do I explicitely ask for local search to be prioritized ?)
It feels less and less like a tool and more like a pet engine you have to teach fetching the mail.
The more interesting thing to me now is seeing what OpenStreetMap and Mapbox are doing. Their combined trajectories may end up surpassing both Google and Apply. Mass produced drones along 3D scanning tools and improved 2D->3D imagery tech could provide for very comprehensive and open map data with all kinds of layers of usage far beyond geo coordinates, lanes, and street sign data.
And last time I was in Palo Alto using Google Maps to find a dry cleaners, it sent me on a 20 minute goose chase, and had me going in circles. On the third try of reentering the address (using copy/paste all three times, all 3 times the address was identical) it finally game me an accurate route.
I still use Google Maps more than Apple maps mainly because of the subway/bus integration and because I've been using it for so long, but in my anecdotal experience Apple Maps isn't any worse than Google Maps and has been less irritating when it's wrong than Google (although I use Google more).
Do you have any source for that? Thanks
I kid, but only sort of. Apple Maps has serious data freshness problems. For years they listed businesses in a building that had long-since been demolished. Looking around in my Oakland neighborhood, Apple Maps is missing two new streets. Google has an indoor map of the BART station, Apple doesn't. Etc.
I've given Apple Maps several chances to delight me since 2012 and have submitted multiple bug reports and feature requests. While the product has improved significantly, it needs a few years of development to match the current offerings from Google. The inaccuracies in the search results for local businesses/parks/points of interest is unacceptable and should be a priority for the Maps team if Apple has any intention of feeding data into a device that will take humans from point A -⇒ B -⇒ C. Also, not being able to create waypoints/multi-leg routes is simply unacceptable in 2016. For most Apple Maps users, I suspect it takes only one shitty search result page for them to give up and use Google Maps.
There are some deep, systemic issues that Apple needs to address:
1) The accuracy and freshness of their data
2) The ability to return fast, intelligent search results from their data
3) Siri's ability to understand user intention when being asked for location data and directions
I'm rooting for Apple, I really am - It just seems that they are having a rough time catching the tailwinds of Google.
So basically, Apple is slightly competitive if you are driving a car within the US, but even there it's probably a lot worse in the aggregate.
And Flyover is not even close to being as useful as Street View.
I'm stunned at the number of people who use Apple Maps in Singapore. Google Maps is much better here - but about 50-70% of the people I know who have an iPhone just use the Map App that is installed on it. Kills me.
I don't know any english speakers with an iPhone who have changed out their keyboard - I've played with the others, but perhaps it's a foreign language thing?
My experience is mostly focused on SE Asia but nobody here sends an SMS if they can help it at all. They're fairly expensive, especially given that monthly 3g plans are as cheap as $3. Whatsapp, Facebook and Viber own messaging here.
Line is popular here, but only because it has stickers and iMessage doesn't.
That's not true. Why do you say that? I've used the foreign keyboards for Spanish and for Korean, and both keyboards are excellent and offer good autocorrect. I've also never heard anyone complain about the foreign keyboards being bad before.
I grabbed a bus a couple of days ago because maps had a live update that it was just 1 minute away from me.