Now that is a much more palatable and understandable angle. I completely agree that it makes sense for Apple to take it in house. I completely sympathize that is a monumental (literally, World-sized) problem to tackle and that for a first-release, this is probably admirable of Apple.
I guess I still don't buy that Apple Maps are going to become the ubiquitous success that WebKit is.
There's one of two implications at hand:
1. It will be the best thing ever because Apple made it (which makes me immensely sad and is why I groaned at this tweet).
2. It will become a staple used by everyone like WebKit.
I don't see any chance of #2 happening as that would require Apple to license that data, or make it a service, or a reusable component for others to use. I can't think of anything that Apple does so with currently, nor any movement from them to make that seem like a logical choice.
Thus, again, I'm left wondering where on Earth someone comes up with correlating iOS6 Maps and WebKit.
I'm thinking it goes something like this: Let's assume Apple's map quality is more or less resolved within the near future and put it aside. What can they do with total control over a POI+venue database?
-- They can generate statistics on who's searching for what, when, and where from and sell that off or give it away free to venue operators.
-- They can link custom Apps and content to a venue. (Welcome to the Museum! Tap here to download a free tour guide.") They can link .passbook offers directly on-map. ("Tap here for a discount on entry, today only!")
-- They can sell off preferential search results, preferential ratings, or retargeted advertising like Google and Yelp do.
-- They can do the opposite of that and proclaim that their maps and venue listings are of unimpeachable quality without gamed results
-- They can create a meta-venue datatype through Apple Connect that allows authorized entities to quickly whip up appealing micro-sites for their venues "Drop your menu .PDF here"
-- They can do anything they want with in-venue navigation, which is going to be massive now that the interior mapping tools are coming onto the market
With all this done:
-- They can API-ize this and create mini-sites or mini-apps wrapped in Yelp-y context that replace the entire idea of how you interact with a venue. For instance: "Thai Bistro" is now an App that tells you exactly what's going on with your favorite joint without consulting twitter, facebook, a webpage, and a mapping service.
In short, with this map platform they can now own the total experience of -leaving the house-. Google is years ahead of them on this, and it's unlikely Google's willing to share their advances with their frenemy.
Maps are foundational to representing the state of the civilization around you. It's the Webkit for Real World Experiences.
I don't think her point is that it's going to get used in lots of other projects but that it will grow to be a big success, and one that people will look back on and say "Apple was right to set off on this weird-seeming path back then." We'll see, of course.
(I say this as somebody that was shocked that Apple didn't build Safari 1.0 on top of Mozilla/Gecko. KHTML?!)
I mean, in that regard I hope she's right. I hope that Apple brings Google Maps some serious competition and obviously, for my iOS breathren, I hope that their maps experience continues to be enhanced.
But we all know that, right? Maybe this was just a response to "iOS Maps sux. Apple sux." type comments? I'm not sure. It's hard for me to believe how polar peoples' opinions still are on iOS and Android to have to have these silly conversations.
Comments
Now that is a much more palatable and understandable angle. I completely agree that it makes sense for Apple to take it in house. I completely sympathize that is a monumental (literally, World-sized) problem to tackle and that for a first-release, this is probably admirable of Apple.
I guess I still don't buy that Apple Maps are going to become the ubiquitous success that WebKit is.
There's one of two implications at hand:
1. It will be the best thing ever because Apple made it (which makes me immensely sad and is why I groaned at this tweet).
2. It will become a staple used by everyone like WebKit.
I don't see any chance of #2 happening as that would require Apple to license that data, or make it a service, or a reusable component for others to use. I can't think of anything that Apple does so with currently, nor any movement from them to make that seem like a logical choice.
Thus, again, I'm left wondering where on Earth someone comes up with correlating iOS6 Maps and WebKit.
I'm thinking it goes something like this: Let's assume Apple's map quality is more or less resolved within the near future and put it aside. What can they do with total control over a POI+venue database?
-- They can generate statistics on who's searching for what, when, and where from and sell that off or give it away free to venue operators.
-- They can link custom Apps and content to a venue. (Welcome to the Museum! Tap here to download a free tour guide.") They can link .passbook offers directly on-map. ("Tap here for a discount on entry, today only!")
-- They can sell off preferential search results, preferential ratings, or retargeted advertising like Google and Yelp do.
-- They can do the opposite of that and proclaim that their maps and venue listings are of unimpeachable quality without gamed results
-- They can create a meta-venue datatype through Apple Connect that allows authorized entities to quickly whip up appealing micro-sites for their venues "Drop your menu .PDF here"
-- They can do anything they want with in-venue navigation, which is going to be massive now that the interior mapping tools are coming onto the market
With all this done:
-- They can API-ize this and create mini-sites or mini-apps wrapped in Yelp-y context that replace the entire idea of how you interact with a venue. For instance: "Thai Bistro" is now an App that tells you exactly what's going on with your favorite joint without consulting twitter, facebook, a webpage, and a mapping service.
In short, with this map platform they can now own the total experience of -leaving the house-. Google is years ahead of them on this, and it's unlikely Google's willing to share their advances with their frenemy.
Maps are foundational to representing the state of the civilization around you. It's the Webkit for Real World Experiences.
I don't think her point is that it's going to get used in lots of other projects but that it will grow to be a big success, and one that people will look back on and say "Apple was right to set off on this weird-seeming path back then." We'll see, of course.
(I say this as somebody that was shocked that Apple didn't build Safari 1.0 on top of Mozilla/Gecko. KHTML?!)
I mean, in that regard I hope she's right. I hope that Apple brings Google Maps some serious competition and obviously, for my iOS breathren, I hope that their maps experience continues to be enhanced.
But we all know that, right? Maybe this was just a response to "iOS Maps sux. Apple sux." type comments? I'm not sure. It's hard for me to believe how polar peoples' opinions still are on iOS and Android to have to have these silly conversations.