Apple’s much-criticised Map app has had fresh scorn heaped upon it as a list of bugs, errors, faults and problems grows ever longer.
Shoppers have been one group to be affected by the glitches with Apple’s brand new iPhone 5 handset, launched today, directing them to chains such as Our Price, C&A and Woolworths – all of which went bust long ago.
Worse any resident of Solihull seeking to use the app for navigational purposes face an even greater challenge – their town doesn’t exist at all according to the program.
Even the Irish government has been critical of Apple’s efforts after discovering that a municipal park in Dublin had been erroneously labelled as an airfield, leading to fears that picnickers could be left scrambling to evade low flying aircraft.
Apple instigated the move in a bid to usurp Google Maps, which many regard as superior, from its handset, part of a long-running battle of wills between Apple and the Android developer.
Anil Dash, an American technology entrepreneur, accused Apple of putting the rivalry ahead of the interests of its customers by effectively imposing sub-standard software. “Apple’s made a new product that actually is pretty but dumb," he said. “They’ve used their platform dominance to privilege their own app over a competitor’s offering, even though it’s a worse experience for users."