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Comment by dijit | Hacker News Reader

Apple maps was worse at launch than Google Maps was at the time.

However I welcomed the change as it was Google which was preventing Siri from working outside of north america ("find restaurant near me"; didn't work in the UK until after Apple Maps)

Today the landscape is different. Google Maps is positively littered with ads which makes it in some cases very annoying to use.

Turn-by-turn navigation, if you have carplay is much superior with apple maps.

They have comparably updated maps data.

So, it's a marginally better usability in some cases and equivalent in most.

Google has two advantages: Reviews and more accurate points of interest (if they are businesses).

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> Google has two advantages: Reviews and more accurate points of interest (if they are businesses).

Unless someone can prove me wrong, Google probably has four advantages, and the last two are MAJOR ones.

3. Google Maps probably has MUCH better worldwide coverage. Which means that Apple Maps is useless in large parts of the world.

4. Google Maps can be used on any platform (Android, Windows).

Where I live, OSM is quite ok. It doesn't generally have the opening hours of the venues… but the opening hours in google are generally made up so that's ok.

OSM has all the mountain trails and caves and hostels, where as gmaps just shows a huge green blob.

There is StreetComplete which makes it really easy to contribute such data. In Osmand it's a bit more work, but still not difficult

3. Apple has global coverage for its maps (or at least equal to Google). Apple maps is formerly Tomtom after all.

Google Maps excels in providing comprehensive information on public transportation routes with much better coverage, but driving routes are equivalent.

4. Eh. We are talking about Apple products so hardly relevant.

Apple successfully displaced Google on its platform with a product that is sometimes better and not particularly worse.

> 3. Apple has global coverage for its maps (or at least equal to Google). Apple maps is formerly Tomtom after all.

This is factually untrue for most of Australia outside of the cities. I can't validate other countries but its not even close here.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-23/apple-maps-error-cost...

As an example of how messed up it is.

> Google Maps probably has MUCH better worldwide coverage. Which means that Apple Maps is useless in large parts of the world.

But that is not a major disadvantage for everyone. It’s a disadvantage in those areas only. Same app version might work great for me, but not for someone else. I wonder if they specifically target improved coverage in areas with most iPhone customers?

> But that is not a major disadvantage for everyone. It’s a disadvantage in those areas only.

Yeah, duh.

However from the original experience with Apple Maps, it was very US-centric and especially California-centric at the start.

And I assume even Americans and Californians want to travel to places with bad coverage.

So yes, this is a total blocker for people that live in those (many?) regions and a major issue even for people that don't live there.

Edit:

https://old.reddit.com/r/applemaps/comments/14wo26t/apple_ma...

Apparently it's basically NA, Western Europe, Australia. So that's what, 1 billion people? The remaining 7+ billion people, tough luck.

> Yeah, duh.

That's not as obvious and not true for most applications. A game or a note taking app will be great or crappy regardless of the area. Maps is an application where the same version works great in on area and then completely unusable in another geographical area. That's pretty odd if you think about it. So then it leads to endless debate "It works great for me, better than Google maps" and of course there will be someone who says "NO! It's complete crap and never works". And both may be right.

> And I assume even Americans and Californians want to travel to places with bad coverage.

Most people don't travel that much. iPhone and Apple's ecosystem in general was never positioned as affordable to 7+ billion people everywhere. I don't know if Apple is going to bother mapping details of some remote village just become an iPhone carrying American might visit. Maybe eventually, but they'll start with US probably.

> The remaining 7+ billion people, tough luck.

Sure. Apple doesn't run a charity and providing details and accurate navigation and maps everywhere is not something they're in the business for.

> Apparently it's basically NA, Western Europe, Australia. So that's what, 1 billion people? The remaining 7+ billion people, tough luck.

Sorry, is your criticism that this free app is only suitable for 1 billion or so people?

That's a failure from your viewpoint?

> Google Maps can be used on any platform (Android, Windows).

Apple Maps is accessible through the web.

For instance, if you search for a place on DuckDuckGo and then click the Maps button, you get Apple Maps results.

Do you get navigation through the web? Or other advanced features?

> Reviews and more accurate points of interest (if they are businesses).

Uh?

Google maps will never ever send me to a restaurant that is 200m from me. It will rather show one that is 5km away and not show the nearby one.

Same thing for hotels.

Once, at maximum zoom level, it didn't show the restaurant I was in. So I added it… turns out it was in their database, they just decided to not show it.

I think they're running a mafia racket and if you don't pay for ads, you are basically taken off the map.

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