Apple continues to play nice, introduces Maps section in App Store

Apple increasingly seem surprised that it's not as impressive as they made it out to be..

What would be nice would be if Apple actually offered their users some money to buy one of these working maps apps.

Why would they do that? There are free alternatives. You can access Google maps and Nokia's via Safari, and there are free apps in iTunes.

As an apology to their users for removing a perfectly good maps app and replacing it with a rubbish one for no reason other than bloody-mindedness. They have basically said "Sorry we've taken away the perfectly good free maps app and replaced it with one that doesn't work, here's some suggestions of some you can use half of which will cost you over twenty five pounds".



I getcha, but the iPhone's not a sat nav.
And what next? Every time a popular app crashes? Every time a dev packs in? Everytime a service changes API (as, e.g. with Twitter and 3rd party apps now - for example: NOT a single Twitter app for webOS anymore)???

People bought 5 million iPhones the first 3 days, and 100 million iDevice owners updated to iOS 6 - KNOWING about the maps.

We can talk about sheep-this, and cult-that... it doesn't change the fact that EVERY OEM changes stuff, and quite often against popular wishes - see the SGS3 (and other phones) dropping Mass Storage Mode!

As to "bloody-mindedness" being the sole reason - I assume you know that is not so?!
Apple are a business. Maps make some pretty money for Nokia and Google etc... Why would Apple not want to make money?
Not to mention - Google refused to add features in the iOS version of Maps that are present on Android phones. I can kind of understand why Apple aren't to pleased about that.
They have to think long-term - as a business. Whether we like'em for it or not.

Indeed, jonbren.
But it seems much stronger than Apple's reality distortion field, is the ever accelerating craving to get stufffstuffstuffstufff free and now and perfect. And if not perfect, then ever so slightly flawed so we can all froth and write about it until the cows come home.

I'm no Apple fan (boy), but I'm getting very annoyed by this.

Thankfully, PCMAG, of all places, put some bite back into the reality sandwich - which is why I'm not just gonna link to it, but, hey, I'll steal some, too:

I've never heard anything as ludicrous as the fuss made over the inadequacy of Apple Maps and the notion that Tim Cook is losing control over Apple. The company is on a tear and the newest iPhone 5 is a remarkable gem of a smartphone. If the product has a flaw, it is not Maps—it's that it seems too valuable and precious to carry around. It's that glamorous. (Note that these words are coming from a notorious Apple-basher.)

All the criticism of Cook stems from Maps-gate. The media pounced to an extreme. VentureBeat even reported that Apple changed some of its promotional copy on its site, removing the claim that iOS 6 Maps is the "most powerful mapping service ever." Holy crap. Stop the presses!

Here is a snippet of the "investigative report:"

Apple's website previously described Maps with the following language: "Designed by Apple from the ground up, Maps gives you turn-by-turn spoken directions, interactive 3D views, and the stunning Flyover feature. All of which may just make this app the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever."

But sharp-eyed tech writer Amit Agarwal noticed this morning that Apple changed the second sentence of that copy to read: "All in a beautiful vector-based interface that scales and zooms with ease."

Critics claim, "This wouldn't happen if Steve Jobs was in charge!" but who can say that for sure? Maybe Steve would have merely covered up the flaws better. What do you think the so-called "reality distortion field" was all about, anyway?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410428,00.asp

Oh come on even apple admit it's crap

Yes, BUT that is NOT at all the point.