Apple on iOS 6 Maps: ‘The more people use it, the better it will get’

Apple has responded to the ongoing furor surrounding the Maps app in iOS 6. The company says that it’s “just getting started with” Maps, and says that the more people use it, the better the service will get.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Macworld:

“Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features including Apple Maps, our first map service. We are excited to offer this service with innovative new features like Flyover and Siri integration, and free turn-by-turn navigation. We launched this new map service knowing that it is a major initiative and we are just getting started with it. We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a cloud-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get. We’re also working with developers to integrate some of the amazing transit apps in the App Store into iOS Maps. We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better.”

While some have heaped praise upon the new Maps app in iOS 6, others have complained about what they cite as the app’s flaws. While some limitations of the app were known well in advance—like its lack of support for Google’s Street View or built-in transit directions—other weak spots weren’t known until iOS 6 shipped on Wednesday. Some customers report that Maps are hard to read, missing details, or factually inaccurate in some areas, particularly outside the U.S.

One might wonder why Apple went to the effort of replacing the well-loved Google-powered Maps app that existed in all prior incarnations of iOS. It’s unclear whether Google or Apple pulled the plug on the service’s presence in iOS 6, but it’s not the only victim of the increased competition between the two tech giants: The Google-powered YouTube app, similarly present in iOS since day one, also vanished in iOS 6. Google released a standalone YouTube app in the App Store before iOS 6’s release. The company hasn’t yet released a standalone Google Maps app, though its mobile site does work fairly competently on the iPhone.

Customers who prefer to rely on the built-in Maps offering from Apple instead must continue to use it and hope that Apple delivers the promised improvements.