While visiting Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Numerama had the opportunity to compare different mapping applications. Apple’s efforts paid off. In cities where Apple Maps is comprehensive, the iPhone software is best.
Derided at its launch in 2012, Apple Plans (or Apple Maps in the original version) is still highly contested in 2023. Blame too imprecise maps at the start, as well as an undoubtedly more confused presentation than the competition (Google Maps, Waze…) . Even today, many iPhone owners swear by Google Maps as the only viable option for getting around.
However, since 2015, Apple has increased its efforts to improve its service. After months of touring France, the Californian brand launched its interior maps in France in July 2022. This has significantly improved the quality of information from Apple Maps, which no longer has much to envy of the competition in terms of reliability of the routes displayed . But changing user habits will take time.
Logically, the United States has taken a bit of a lead. Back in 2018 in California (and January 2020 in the rest of the country), Apple began testing its new Apple Maps. The result is surprising. In Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the two cities Numerama visits for CES 2023, Apple Maps is hands down the best mapping app we’ve tried.
Apple Maps’ 3D interface is sublime
France may have the new Apple plans from July 2022, but it doesn’t have all the features of the service yet. For some reason beyond us, Apple has decided not to offer the same options in all countries. The distribution of the new Apple plans takes place in several phases, 12 precisely, according to Justin O’Beirne’s site. The blogger, who has made Apple Maps his specialty (his articles on mapping cities are fascinating), Paris currently only has access to 8 out of 12 new features. A city like Los Angeles, where the deployment has ended, therefore has advantages over France :
- Several important buildings, such as the airport or shopping malls, are modeled from the inside. We can then obtain navigation information, including augmented reality, to find a store.
- Public transport timetables are updated in real time, these are estimates based on the usual data in France.
- Bike paths are available. In France, you have to use Google Maps or special applications, such as GeoVelo.
- The city is modeled in 3D, which is probably the most important point.
3D city modeling is what makes Apple Maps so amazing in the US. There, hundreds of buildings, including hotels and parks, are viewable in 3D and full color. In addition to surprising the user as soon as he searches for a destination, this feature significantly improves the quality of navigation. Where Google Maps and Waze make do with rectangular buildings, Apple gives the impression of being in a video game.
In Vegas, where everything is colorful and bright, it’s even more impressive. Apple Maps doesn’t look like a mapping app, but a 3D recreation of a city. These colorful buildings are also displayed in navigation mode, which makes following a map much easier. What appears on the right of the screen is actually what is on the right of the car.
Apple Maps’ 3D display has another purpose: to keep you from taking the wrong exit on the freeway. In a country where it is easy to find 7 to 8 lanes on the same axis, Apple Maps is the only software with an interface clear enough to avoid errors. When Google and Waze tell you to position yourself in the 3rd or 4th lane, Apple draws the lanes to take on the map. Once the exit is close, an animation allows you to anticipate the shape that the road will take to anticipate braking. Once you understand the concept, it’s impossible to go wrong. Apple’s map, still colored, is extremely clear.
Even on foot navigation is more pleasant from Apple than from Google. On a hike to the Hollywood Sign, only the Apple app gave us information clear enough for us to climb without taking a wrong turn. Google suggested going through a gate that is inaccessible on foot. In Las Vegas, directions to escalators, often needed to get from place to place, have always looked perfect on Apple Maps.
Finally good directions
Being beautiful is one thing, giving correct information is another. How can we not remember the failures of Apple’s first plans, which too often led its users to the wrong place? While our passage to the American west coast was brief, we never had the slightest problem with Apple software. On the contrary, he was often the only one to provide factual information on building opening times (Google once got the time wrong).
How to explain the victory of Apple Plans in the US? We can imagine two reasons:
- In the United States, more precisely in California, Apple plays at home. Its efforts are therefore greater, while Google is perhaps too well established and focused on more global implementations.
- In the United States, over 50% of the population owns an iPhone. For merchants, providing correct information to Apple plans is more important than in France. This no doubt helps Apple improve their service.
In time, will Apple have the best mapping software on the planet? Let us allow ourselves to doubt it. Yes, because the implementation of the new Apple plans is slow and takes place in stages. Then, because Google is not stopped. The unveiling of a 3D Google Maps, worthy of a video game, had impressed in 2022. The deployment of such a function, undoubtedly worldwide in one fell swoop, could allow Google to surpass Apple very easily. Including in the USA.
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