Apple CEO Tim Cook Apologizes For Apple Maps Fiasco

Apple has been under some extreme fire lately with their new Maps app on iOS 6. A lot of users have been reporting that the new maps are inaccurate and extremely buggy, especially the new 3D flyover feature where melting architecture was the bane on user experience. Apple CEO Tim Cook has brought up the problems and issued a public apology on the matter.

Cook posted up an open letter on Apple's website mentioning how the new iOS 6 maps app "fell short" of the company's high standard. Surprisingly, a good portion of Cook's letter discusses different third-party suggestions for iOS 6 users to use instead. He suggests using maps from Bing, Mapquest, and Waze, as well as web apps from Nokia and Google. Cook says to use these alternatives while Apple works to improve their maps app in the meantime.

Tim Cook's full apology letter is below:

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

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.

Tim Cook

Apple's CEO

It's certainly surprising to see Cook suggest other maps apps over their in-house option. That's definitely something you don't see everyday, but it shows that Apple realizes it screwed up a bit and that they're being the bigger man by telling users to take advantage of other strong map solutions while they work on improving theirs. It shows that they want their users to have the best user experience possible whether or not that involves using Apple's own app catalog.

[via Phone Scoop]