The Reason Why There Was No iOS 8 Maps Improvement Announced At WWDC

It was said that Apple would be introducing major improvements to the Maps app with iOS 8, including public transit directions in cities, better data for points-of-interest, indoor mapping and augmented reality at the WWDC keynote event, but the company didn’t surprisingly announce any of these features.

TechCrunch is now reporting that the improved plans for iOS 8 Maps app are not ready so far. A tipster said it was a personal issue:

“Many developers left the company, no map improvements planned for iOS 8 release were finished in time. Mostly it was failure of project managers and engineering project managers, tasks were very badly planned, developers had to switch multiple times from project to project.”

It’s a take that is both contested and corroborated by our other source. “I would say that planning, project management and internal politics issues were a much more significant contributor to the failure to complete projects than developers leaving the group,”

Apple’s move to make its own Maps app superior to Google Map backfired during the time of iOS 6 and the company apologised to its customers. And Apple has yet to fulfill its promise of improving the experience that customers expecting, considering Apple’s high standards.

The delay comes despite Apple purchasing location/mapping companies such as HotStop, WiFiSLAM, Embark, and Locationary.

In contrast, Google has been regular in improving its Maps application. Google Maps recently received a major update which brought advanced search filtering, improved transit results, turn-by-turn directions and a lot more.

It has to be seen if the improvements to Apple’s Maps app will be available by the time iOS 8 is publicly released in fall.

So what do you think ?