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Google Maps Has 7,000 Employees: Good Luck Apple Maps!

Posted: September 23, 2012

Google Maps

Curious to understand why Google Maps is better than Apple Maps? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Google has 7,000 employees currently building out the Google Maps platform.

Apple recently booted Google Maps as the default mapping program for iOS 6 devices, and complaints regarding the quality and accuracy of Apple Maps have flooded in.

According to Business Insider:

“In June, we talked to a pair of Googlers involved in its mapping product, and they said that  Google has 1,100 full time employees and 6,000 contractors working on its mapping products. Those 7,000 people do all sorts of granular work.”

Those employees handle a myriad of tasks that range from street view drivers to airplane pilots and even people drawing maps. Other employees focus on correcting incorrect listings.

Employees not working on current Google Maps products are responsible for creating the next great Google Maps products that will eventually make their way to the open market.

Throw in Android, iOS, Blackberry, and other mobile employees, and Google has essentially created an industry within its own business culture.

So, what is Apple’s response to widespread complaints? The company has asked that customers be patient as it improves its product. In the meantime, Apple customers can expect continued horrid map service from the company as directions continue to be muddled, businesses tend to be mislabeled, and more problems.

Do you think ditching Google Maps for an untested Apple Maps product was a huge misstep for the iOS mobile operating system? In the meantime, I’ll be installing Google Maps as a third-party app for my iOS 6 smartphone as soon as possible.

Category: Technology
Tags : , , ,
Posted: September 23, 2012
James Johnson

By James Johnson









Comments


4 Archived Responses to “ Google Maps Has 7,000 Employees: Good Luck Apple Maps! ”

  1. John Maciog
    Sep 23, 2012

    But Apple has $, good luck Google.

  2. Lachlan Rayner
    Sep 24, 2012

    So does Google.

  3. Lachlan Rayner
    Sep 24, 2012

    So does Google.

  4. Steffen Jobbs
    Sep 24, 2012

    Apple has dollars, no doubt, but they don't have the willingness to spend money like Google does. Apple can't approach the map project using stingy methods like they do other projects of sharing workers. They need to bombard this project with lots of bodies. Start recruiting some project managers and let them hire thousands of drones. Apple likely has no pilots, mapping equipment or vans driving around the streets. They probably just have a handful of people sitting in an office dicking with someone else's data.

    I sure hope Apple hires someone that knows what the hell they're doing. Or acquire Rand-McNally and bring it into the current century. Apple could use an entire company's mapping resources to get faster results. I know it's early yet, but Apple is in over its head because the impatient media expects results in months instead of years. I don't think Apple made a mis-step if they're dumping Google Maps. Google can't be trusted. And screw all that fancy 3D crap. Fill up the 2D datasets and get them accurate before anything else. As far as I'm concerned, any maps without Street View is just Stone Age.