Apple Has a New Cook
blog.jarederondu.com
blog.jarederondu.com
> We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.
vs
> Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.
But it's suffice to say that Tim Cook's apology really isn't something that's so mindblowing. The debacle over Apple Maps is so huge that Cook had no choice but to apologize. People around the world are not only outraged by how inferior Apple Maps is, but they are now ridiculing it, to the point where many believe it could actually impact sales of the iPhone 5, and drastically slow down migration to iOS 6. Someone had to do something to quell the outrage, and for something of this magnitude, that someone had to be the CEO.
It's pretty coincidental that another huge debacle, the NFL replacement ref situation, both came to a head in the same week. Roger Goodell, also had to issue an apology to fans as well, for letting the situation get so out of control that it affected the quality and reputation of the NFL. It's the exact same playbook (pun intended) as Tim Cook's.
Does the OP really think that Jobs didn't know about the next iteration of iPhone (or any of Apple's other upcoming products)? He stepped down as CEO just over a year ago and the iPhone 5 was announced only recently. Designing, prototyping, iterating, building and shipping stuff takes time.
"When he called me to his home to talk about being the CEO and subsequently the discussions we had, he told me, 'I witnessed what happened at Disney when Walt passed away,'" Cook said. "He said that people would go to meetings, and all sit around and talk about, what would Walt have done? How would he view this? And he looked at me with those intense eyes that only he had, and he told me to never do that, to never ask what he would do. Just do what's right. And so I'm doing that." [1]
[1] http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/05/apple-ceo-tim-cook-stev...
They blew this, they blew this, they blew this. They failed to reset customer expectations, walked directly into a woodchipper with a serious platform regression, and gave their competitors a talking point that will actually stick for the next few years.
The only interesting bit of Apple Kremlinology that can be engaged in here: did they intentionally portray the maps as an advance in an attempt to keep iphone 5 pre-orders up? Because there is no way Apple had convinced themselves this was launch worthy internally. They cannot have become that self-unaware already.
I imagine this apology was written months ago.
But I can't believe that they would go toe-for-toe on the map client feature set without similar attention being paid to overall database quality.
They've licensed dozens of data sources, they've bought entire companies, they've been working on this for years...
I think they pulled the trigger for a variety of reasons and then braced for impact. This change wasn't taken lightly.
And this is exactly what Jobs would have led with. He would have pointed out any and all areas where Apple's Maps performed better than Google, before segueing into how they are addressing the remaining problems. I bet he would have some clever statistics on just how often Apple's maps are right. And he would have tons of examples of mistakes on Google's maps, to create some doubt about whether Apple was really worse (remember all of the other phones that Jobs tried to use to demonstrate that iPhone wasn't the only phone suffering from "death-grip" issues during antenna-gate?).
I sure miss him.
Given that Maps is the major change in iOS6, wouldn't it have been better to release the iPhone 5 on a slightly improved "iOS 5.2", and to keep iOS6 for the next iPad?
Though that would have worked against Passbook :(
Please, macosx releases have an history of being bug ridden. So much that one upgrade was free (the first one, if I recall correctly).
The man built his own legend by rewriting history and bullying press. And selling computers, phones and walkmans, too.
Compared to what other OS that was "bug free" on release?
Also, "bug ridden"? Please. Some people had issues with some features (and in some hardware setups). For most people it was a smooth ride.
>So much that one upgrade was free (the first one, if I recall correctly).
Yes, the FIRST version of a new OS, adopted by very few people at the time (most still run OS 9 still for one year more), and put out by a company with 1/1000 the resources of later Apple, was buggy...
>The man built his own legend by rewriting history and bullying press. And selling computers, phones and walkmans, too.
And changing several markets profoundly. Like the PC industry (taking Apple from 2% to nearly 20%), the music industry (iTunes, the #1 retailer in the US), the music player industry (made mp3 players a mainstream phenomenon, still holds 70%+ of the market), the phone industry (the iPhone was a game changer, at the time Google was not only not even started on their touch Android thing, but Eric Schidt appeared on stage at the iPhone introduction), the mobile app industry (made a huge quality jump from BS Java and Symian apps of the past, and a massively bigger marketplace), and the tablet industry (made tablets from a nerd niche and a tiny market to a huge success, still commands 70%+ of the market).
Also, "Bullying press"? Like doing what? I call BS.
It would be interesting to hear your ideas how somebody staring with a nearly bankrupt company, with 2% market share of the desktop/laptop market "bullies the press" or gets to the most valuable company of earth.
From your comment it seems like it all is some 'saleman trick' or some mass hypnosis...
Jobs had a tendency to do the latter. He would rarely admit Apple's mistakes verbally, but would correct the problem as swiftly as possible. This strategy (obviously) worked pretty well for Apple's bottom line, and it's hard to argue that it upset many customers.
Now, I don't have access to the information Apple does, but for this particular situation it seemed much less important that Apple make a apology vs. just improving the product rapidly. You apologize when people feel wronged, slighted, cheated, or otherwise emotionally distraught by your actions.
In this case, there are issues with Maps. But when Maps leads you to the wrong destination, do you feel emotionally hurt by Apple? In my experience, no, you realize the computer messed up and you look at the map and correct it. There's a certain level of tolerance people can have for this type of error they cannot have, for example, when their phones cannot get reception or drop calls due to the antenna.
Beyond this, this is a problem that can be rapidly fixed if Apple dedicated a massive amount of resources to it. As people use Maps, there is a ton of data being collected and lots of low hanging fruit being revealed. The first several months after launch will surely shake most of the major issues out.
Also, I'm absolutely stunned Cook would refer people to other apps (of their competitors!) instead. This is really a punch to the gut for shareholders (disclosure: which I am not) as it looks like they are admitting defeat and willing to concede mindshare for mapping applications.
A much better approach to solving this would be to acknowledge the problem, less apologetically, but more importantly, become transparent with the rate at which issues are being fixed. Publish some metrics that show how hard Apple is working on things being fixed. Push an update to the app that highlights these improvements. Make people realize Apple is putting all of its energy into addressing the problem, and that progress is being made each day.
Or, do what Jobs did, and just deflect criticism while the engineers fix the problems for a few weeks. Eventually everyone will forget about it, Maps will be the best mapping experience on iOS, and it will become a distant memory.
Knowing when to take these paths is important and IMHO it is not a good sign that Cook went down this road for this particular issue.
And the derived problem from this is given the knowledge that there are some problems, I would never trust Apple maps unless I know where I am going anyway.
- It's likely rare. Either people catch the mistake early (as you mentioned) or the algorithm actually works.
- It's correctable. Sometimes you can eyeball the map, sometimes you can see how it messed up and work around it. Sometimes you know better and "override" it by driving the way that you know. Ultimately you can ask someone or pull up google.
- It's unclear where you direct your anger to. When your phone drops calls, you blame AT&T. If it's the hardware, you blame Apple. If there is an error in the map, who do you blame? Us techie's realize the details, but do most people know who authored the maps? If people understood it was Google before they might still think it's Google's fault now. If the algorithm gives you the wrong directions, do you blame apple or the "stupid computer"? It seems like there is less of an emotional anger towards Apple, the company, when this error occurs (excluding those of us who understand the intricacies of what parties are involved for what types of error.)
A big dynamic here is that people were used to a certain level of quality from Google. Did they know it was Google? Do they know who is to blame for the step backwards?
I'm certainly curious what specifics prompted this response. Cook has never been in charge before and speaking from experience it's always incredibly tempting to want to make a public statement and backtrack when the mob is yelling at your door, but despite common advice it's not always the right decision for the company.
I get why Apple doesnt want to be Googles friend, but...this has gone too far.
If you live in the bay area or NYC area I've not experienced any major issues with Maps other than it asking me to take slightly more roundabout routes (but perhaps marginally faster ones) than necessary once in a while.
Since my home city and work location are wrong, I am very apprehensive about trusting Apple maps too. Who knows if the Panera's I'm meeting someone at is even in the right plaza? Do I need to call up every place for directions before I go there? If so, then why should I downgrade to that experience when Google Maps hasn't been wrong so far?
I think people who live in cities with good public transportation do not realize the nightmare that is driving around in smaller cities where every other street is Peach Tree and every intersection is Palm Dr. and Palm Ave. Google Maps has worked perfectly all these years. Apple Maps needs to be just as correct, if not more from the first day of launch.
I refuse to believe that there was no way for Apple to get the GPS usage data to build a better mapping app all these years. Find-my-friend/phone already goes through their servers. Users connect to 3G and visit the Appstore all the time. Even iPod gets new artwork from Apple servers. All of that's enough to know where the bulk of your users are and where they've been. Once you know where your users are, then you work with mapping companies who understand that a zip code can belong to more than one city!
If I miss something important because the directions seemed correct overall but were in fact wrong, then not only do I get emotionally hurt, there could be real life damages. Not just missing a meeting or lunch date but imagine being late for your immigration interview or being delayed when visiting a hospital during a loved one's emergency. Sure, you can blame me for not being prepared enough but I TRUST my Google Maps app. I can't recall the last time Google Maps was severely wrong. The worst I've gotten is being directed to the non-public entrance of a gated community when visiting a friend.
I want to trust the iPhone's new Maps app too but I can't yet. So it's not a small "oopsie one wrong turn" issue. Missing an exit around where I live can be a 40 minute detour. If a software upgrade causes me to be late for a once-in-a-lifetime job interview, the least I expect from the CEO is to admit that their software sucks.
What happens if your battery dies? What happens if you drop your device and it breaks? How are you going to cope? Are you going to miss your 'once-in-a-lifetime' job interview?
The sort of dependency you describe ("emotionally hurt", "life damages") is foreign to me.
I drove from FL to UT and back a couple of years ago using only my iPhone for directions. I did not get lost once, even though we went through twenty different inner-cities and camped out in National Parks for weeks. Currently Apple Maps has my house city and my work location wrong. I live in a heavily populated county in Florida (Pinellas) and if my local directions are so wrong, I don't know how wrong the remote destinations will be.
I can understand why you don't need to trust your GPS or care much about directions if you've lived in the area for long or have good public transport. But just like many people rely on cellphones for voice calls, many people rely on GPS that comes with cellphones. I can accept change if it is better, not worse. I'm used to my cellphone GPS being correct. I'm not used to it being wrong.
Try going somewhere important and missing it because of a Maps error, and you'll sing a different tune. You might not be "emotionally hurt" but you're sure be pissed off.
Google Maps turn-by-turn has, on several occasions, tried to take me the wrong way down a one way street. You cannot just "TRUST" an app and outsource responsibility for your own punctuality and navigation.
Three years ago, I bought an iPhone primarily for visual voicemail and Google Maps. I upgraded when new phones come out and have been very satisfied. I don't see why I should have to switch to poor GPS software and stop my reliance on a device that cost me more than my laptop.
I understand WHY Apple did it. Still doesn't mean it was the right decision. Hence the very public apology.
I far* prefer the approach of solving your customers' problems (they cannot get where they need to go reliably) than issuing fluff to look good.
There was a sincerity in the letter, which I concede was probably manufactured under the precise supervision of psychologists, that subtly changed my emotional disposition from being intensely pissed at to gunning for them. More than just for Apple, but for Tim, the guy who has to succeed Steve Jobs and live with "Steve wouldn't have let xyz happen" at every turn.
Oh yes, and the Apple Cube.
They really should have saved the apology card for mending an issue much more dire. Now that they've used it up, they can't really publicly apologize for anything for quite a few years lest their brand become tainted.
It's astonishing that people keep saying this even after the CEO has taken the almost unprecedented step of issuing a formal apology. Maybe the new maps were ok for you, but they're clearly a disaster for a lot of users and well below Apple's usual standard. Apple fans are doing them a disservice by refusing to admit and address their weaknesses.