Apple Maps Outperforms Google And Waze In Head-To-Head Comparison
In a new column for PC Magazine, columnist John C. Dvorak, along with TWiT broadcaster Leo LaPorte and writer Glenn Rubenstein, put three of the most popular mobile maps applications to the test, and you may be surprised by the outcome.
Each participant in the experiment was in a separate vehicle and using a separate mapping program: LaPorte with Waze, Dvorak with Google Maps, and Rubenstein with Apple Maps.
Assisted by their respective apps, each driver made a number stops throughout California and of the three applications, it was Apple’s much-discussed Maps application that provided the best directions! At one time in the not-too-distant past, the Maps application on iOS was little more than a joke.
But now it’s got Dvorak – a man notorious for predicting the death of both the Mac and the iPhone – asking what everyone was complaining about.
I’ve personally used the Apple Maps app several times (I’ve got a legendarily terrible sense of direction), and it’s always worked great for me, but it’s still surprising to see results like this in print simply because Apple’s Maps app got so much hate for so long.
As it turns out, though, it was actually Google’s mapping service that took the flak this time around. Dvorak said that Google Maps has been a ”little ragged” lately, claiming that the service has actually gone down hill. Very interesting.
So what do you guys make of this? Have you gotten over the initial “Mapsgate” fiasco or do you still prefer a third party app to your built-in iOS program? Sound off in the comments section below.