I have read a lot about the disappointments with Apple Maps and even if the maps were totally right when we drew from Sorunda south of Stockholm to Täby Centrum north of Stockholm (see the blogpost below), I’m still aware of that at some other places Apple Maps really sucks. It’s not something you can neglect. Maps are only useful when they are right. One of the most depressing articles I read was My next phone will be a Samsung, not an iPhone 5 by Michael Grothaus.

The Apple Maps are actually so bad that Tim Cook gave an official apology today.

Here on my island, Gotland, I have noticed that Apple Maps can find the streets but not the street numbers. So, Apple Maps works pretty well, but not optimal. So far.

Should we be mad at Apple because of these maps? No, I don’t think so. As far as I can tell they made the wisest decision they could. (Actually, no one ever makes nothing but the wisest decision – though sometimes it might seem as the decision was not the wisest afterwards.) They just couldn’t go on using Google Maps. Google would not allow them to use turn-by-turn in iPhones, but Google would use turn-by-turn in their devices! Hey, that would give Google a huge advantage! Of course Apple couldn’t accept that. I guess that older conflicts between these big companies played a role as well.

Therefore I totally accept that Apple had to make this decision. Next question is: how will they solve it? But another question is: can I do something to help Apple to make Apple Maps better? The answer is that I can do something to help Apple and I will gladly do that, because it makes me feel good if I can be part of making Apple’s products better. I already do this with always sending suggestions for how to make iWork better. Now I will make an extra effort to check Apple Maps AND every time I find something that’s not right, I will report it. It’s easy to report any faults you find, if you ”look behind the map” you find different options, but if you look above that, you will find, in very small print ”Report problem”.

Now, if you like Apple a lot like I do: make sure that you report every fault that you find. That’s the input Apple need.