[Nikedas]

"Wow, The New BlackBerry Maps Are Worse Than Apple Maps"

Wow, The New BlackBerry Maps Are Worse Than Apple Maps - Yahoo! Finance

BlackBerry's new smartphone, the Z10, has pretty good reviews so far.

We've only had a Z10 for a day now, so we're still chugging through all the new stuff. But we wanted to take some time to talk about our experience with one of the most important apps on any smartphone, the mapping app.

And the BlackBerry maps app is pretty terrible, e ven worse than Apple Maps on the iPhone.

Here are just a few of the problems we found in BlackBerry Maps:

No street view or satellite view.
No public transit directions.
No way to look up news and reviews of venues based on Yelp, Zagat, or a similar service.
It has problems finding lesser-known venues like mom and pop stores and restaurants. (Although if you search for popular stuff like "McDonald's" or "The Empire State Building" you won't have a problem.)
You can only look up directions between your current location and the place you'd like to go. You can't look up two different addresses and find directions between them. (Google Maps for iPhone also has this issue).
The interface is difficult to figure out.

There's more to it, but you get the idea. The app simply isn't as robust and useful as Google Maps and has fewer features than Apple Maps. And a quick search in the App World store on BlackBerry for alternative apps pulls up a bunch of junk, including one app that has the exact same icon as Apple Maps on the iPhone.

As we learned with the Apple Maps debacle last fall, mapping apps are incredibly important to smartphone users, almost as much as texting and calling. Apple's decision to ditch Google Maps for its own inferior app caused a major PR headache for the company and was a possible factor that led to Scott Forstall's firing.

It's something BlackBerry can't afford to get wrong on a big bet like BlackBerry 10.

[undone]

Impressive for a phone that hasnt been release to the US market yet.

[Houshinto]

Rrrright...but does it direct you into the middle of a lake or in the barren landscape of Australia with no help.
Sorry, but as obvious as it is that Blackberry Maps is not on the same level as GoogleMaps (as if they were expecting it to be? Give me a break....) saying it's worse the Apple Maps is delusional and reeks of "saving face" for Apple.

[Raestloz]

I was under the impression that's how BlackBerry Maps have always been? I know my BlackBerry Maps on BlackBerry 6 do not have anything mentioned above (distance between points, reviews, etc). While it doesn't exactly solve the problem, I already know what to expect from BlackBerry Maps. BlackBerry didn't make it, IIRC. It's licensed from some company.

[bizarrejustin]

who cares. thats what google maps is for

[njblackberry]

I wish Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive was available for the Z10...
Those apps are beautiful.

[donmateo]

Only Yahoo would spread such malarkey.

[Foreverup]

who cares. thats what google maps is for

aaahhhh think we should tell him????

[mark37724]

Is it ego that all phones must have a proprietary maps program? Wish that they would just licence Google maps and quite trying to build their own.

[mathking606]

The maps are pretty barebone and that is why I suggested they need to purchase a 3D Mapping Company.

[Caymancroc]

aaahhhh think we should tell him????

Classic.

[ccbs]

After the Apple maps blunder, BB really should know better and release something at least on par with Google maps. There will be no excuse since they have seen how Apple get scrutinized.

[Foreverup]

After the Apple maps blunder, BB really should know better and release something at least on par with Google maps. There will be no excuse since they have seen how Apple get scrutinized.

Yeah but Google has sunk years and millions into their mapping application. No one could expect RIM to be on par with that, but Apple on the other hand has billions and actually could purchase a company that made an app as good as google maps. **** Apple could of purchased Nokia just for the mapping apps if it wanted to.

[ccbs]

Do normal smartphone customers care whether BB is as rich as Apple? Are you saying that if anyone care for top flight performance they should not look at BB, given that BB will never be as good and as rich as Apple?
BB is in it to win the fight and should bring performance on par or better.

[chr1sny]

This is a bummer. All of the excuses you guys are coming up with aren't going to make up for a lack of functionality that a significant amount of users will find to be important.

Blackberry is playing catch up and has to achieve greatness in their execution if they want to compete with the top 2. Being an apologist does not further the goal of reclaiming their former prominence.

[emstardeluxe]

There's also a big difference between style issues and content issues.
Step 1> accuracy, then
Step 2> additional functionality
(obviously I'd rather both, but accuracy first please)
(also, someone has already successfully sideloaded google maps on the Z10)

[Zarpan]

Maybe someone else who has a Z10 already can comment on whether the maps are useful at all. I'm sure that Google Maps is much better, but other than that the author of that article (Steve Kovach) has a long history of being negative toward BlackBerry, so I wouldn't be surprised if he approached that review from a very biased viewpoint.

[joe.miller]

(also, someone has already successfully sideloaded google maps on the Z10)

This is isn't a solution. The overwhelming majority of BlackBerry owners have no idea what sideloading is.

[tpmbb10]

If the maps are accurate and have navigation I think that's a pretty damn good first cut at it. More functionality will come over time. Until I start hearing about how inaccurate the BB maps is, you can't tell me it's worse than Apple Maps.

[unstoppablekem]

I wish Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive was available for the Z10...
Those apps are beautiful.

You have the nokia mobile site.

[Plazmic Flame]

Waiting for Google Maps...

[simu31]

So, because it doesn't have a satellite view, that "worse" for a mapping app than not actually getting you to the right place....

But how could any journalist with any integrity.... oh wait it's Yahoo! Nevermind, I thought I was reading something from a site that actually counted.

Si.

[shlammed]

I thought they developed apps with the help of Tom Tom or one of those companies?

this is disappointing to hear

[CanuckBB]

"Wow, The New BlackBerry Maps Are Worse Than Apple Maps"

No street view or satellite view. GPS don have that either. I don't need my data to be consumed downloading pretty pictures
No public transit directions. That is a flaw
No way to look up news and reviews of venues based on Yelp, Zagat, or a similar service. That is a flaw
It has problems finding lesser-known venues like mom and pop stores and restaurants. (Although if you search for popular stuff like "McDonald's" or "The Empire State Building" you won't have a problem.) Those things are supplied to the map makers. Usually at a cost.
You can only look up directions between your current location and the place you'd like to go. You can't look up two different addresses and find directions between them. (Google Maps for iPhone also has this issue). It's designed to be a GPS type app. "I'm here and want to get there" type of queries
[
The interface is difficult to figure out.First cut through

[Tre Lawrence]

Kinda harsh to be comparing it to GMaps, but I expect that is what people will do.

Are there third party offerngs that can fill some gaps? Also, is it possible to trip plan on a syncable web portal (like TeleNav and Gmaps)?

The ability to map two separate locations is good to have, but I do agree that accuracy will be the biggest initial test.