With the inclusion of Apple Maps on the iPhone 5 people are now beginning to question how much impact Steve Jobs really had on that area of the business.
Now that the Apple iPhone 5 has hit the hands of the users the feedback on the change from Google Maps to Apple Maps with iOS6 appears to have been doomed from the start.
While Apple still had ample time to run on its licensing agreement with Google for their mapping services, the desire for additional functionality led them to develop the Apple Maps product and push this to market well ahead of any apparent readiness.
There are suggestions that user feedback is the new mode of operation for Apple when it comes to QA and testing with them taking the same approach to the release of Siri on the iPhone 4S which also appeared to be far from ready for wide market release.
While Jobs involvement in Apple was greatly reduced around the time of the iPhone 4S final development and release it can’t be known if he gave it his final blessing or if this was part of an agreed strategy for ongoing product development and testing.
Either way, the Apple Maps product appears to be a massive fail from Apple and it will be interesting to see how long it takes for a native Google Maps app to be released (if at all).