Apple has corrected Apple Maps 2.5 million times
It wasn’t pretty. The first version of Apple Maps, a product that took the acquisition of three digital mapping companies to create, had more issues than most users could count. It was next-level bad and not something Apple is used to delivering or its customers are used to seeing.
Almost four years later, Apple Maps is better, usable and, in some aspects, almost an equal to Google Maps, especially since Apple improved search and added transit directions last year with iOS 9.
See also: iOS 9 review: A need for speed, and Maps that actually work
Getting there wasn’t easy. In fact, according to Apple, it took millions of tiny fixes.
In a recent interview with Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, said, “We’ve corrected more than 2.5 million customer feedback that we’ve gotten from customers directly to maps that we’ve corrected and notified them back that we fixed them.” Cue and Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, joined Gruber on Friday for a special edition of his podcast, The Talk Show.
That’s a lot of smoothed-out roadways, straightened Eiffel Towers and re-routed trips. On the other hand, Apple Maps comes preloaded on every new iPhone. The company has sold tens of millions of iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus devices. It’s safe to assume that many users are still downloading and using Google Maps, iOS’s original default mapping system, but even if a small percentage of iPhone users are using Apple Maps, 2.5 million corrections out of at least 180 million iPhone users is not too shabby.
Cue’s answer came as part of a larger discussion about the quality of Apple’s software. Federighi reminded Gruber about the sheer scale Apple faces every time they launch a new service, “The ramp is unbelievable. We go from effectively zero to international scale, literally overnight.”
In addition to revealing just how many Apple Maps customer requests they handled, Federighi and Cue shared some other Apple service highlights, revealing that Apple Music has 11 million paying subscribers, Siri is now fielding billions of queries a week and the App Store and iTunes store handle 750 million transactions a week.
To help you remember just how bad Apple Maps was in 2012, we’ve included, below, a little walk down memory lane.
Are you alright, Eiffel Tower?
You’re looking kind of… flat.
“Battersea Bridge in London, UK. I think I’ll find another way to cross the Thames.”
Well, that’s helpful.
“One part of my city (Paderborn, Germany) is now sharp but black-white, the other part is colored but blurry! Great Apple!”
“Walking instructions actively try to avoid getting you to your desired target. (Which is correctly marked by the red pin.)”
What happens when the color starts? Does it mean you’ve reached Oz?
“I-93 at the Zakim Bridge in Boston. Never knew it was a roller coaster!”
Are they hiding something?
“This isn’t some remote location, this is the city of Mumabi. The blue dot is where I am.”
“Clearly Apple knows of the coming apocolypse. Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge.”
They said it all.
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Originally published at mashable.com on February 12, 2016.