In a mildly shocking move, Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized to customers {link no longer active} for the new Maps app not meeting many of their expectations. The contrite message also invited users to use services from competitors like Bing and MapQuest.
However, it was the mention of a company called Waze that was the most surprising. Employing 80 people, the four-year old company had its day, and perhaps month, made by the name drop.
“You begin seeing all these emails showing up, people are congratulating us,” says Noam Bardin, CEO of Waze . “Apple is this black hole that nobody has an idea of what goes on in.”
On a normal day, about 70,000 people download Waze’s free navigation app, a number that will be well over 100,000 the day after the recommendation by Cook. Since the Apple Maps release on September 19, downloads have been about 25 percent higher than usual, helped by Apple’s newly created section in the app store for mapping alternatives.
Waze crowdsources some of its information, and lets people draw areas from scratch, making it popular in certain parts of the world. Waze is also an information partner with Apple Maps.
Bardin, had nothing but good things to say about how Cook handled the situation. “To come out and apologize, recommend third-party apps, then do a featured section in the app store,” he says, “Tim really deserves kudos on this.”
Source: BusinessWeek.com
