Apple maps satellite imagery doesn't work

What a good point you have. Obviously Apple will do that to distance themselves from their archrival Google (used to be Microsoft), who happens to also be the maker of the competing (and highly competitive) Android platform in the now-ubiquitous mobile-device world. And of course, since customer behaviour dictates what companies do, if indeed the customer has come to "buying it regardless" because "it's Apple", then Apple can afford to do things this way.

But although this chain of posts has gone dead, I'm replying here to report that Google Maps' satellite imagery and Apple Maps' haven't always been separate. When I upgraded to iOS 6 on my iPod touch 4 last January (had delayed it because of the bad press and I so loved Apple's original Google-powered Maps app), I tried out the new Apple Maps app, and I remember in there, the satellite image worked OK, and also, it was still the same as in Google Maps. In the Quebec City area (north of the St. Lawrence River), I could see the same June 2007 satellite image we still get in Google Maps, and the advantage of looking it up in the Apple Maps app was that it was now the only place on my mobile device I could still see the satellite image "bare", without the map overlay. I the new Google Maps app, you can't get rid of the map overlay.

Now, yesterday night, I looked up the satellite image in the same area in Apple Maps, and what a surprise it was to find out the image had finally been updated. The image shown there now is from the early summer of 2011 or 2012. Now those who hadn't "harvested" images of any place in particular in that area, it was too late for them. Or so I thought. I also noticed how poor the resolution, and quality the new image had, what a step backwards from the 2007 image that let me see even the shingles on a house's roof! So to confirm the update, I went on my PC today and looked up the Google Maps satellite image in the same area, and there, it's still the 2007 image. So has it been updated in the Apple Maps app first, to then come over in Google Maps, I wondered.

So I took a look at Calgary where I now live, and where the Google Maps satellite image was updated lately, and yet there too, I noticed a different imagery in each. And, in Apple, it's again the same quality and resolution as in Quebec City. So now, I no longer have a choice outside of the good-quality image with overlay, and putting up with the poor-quality one if I don't want the overlay.

So now, if it is truly that Apple is where Google was back in 2005 when it comes to satellite imagery, as I read somewhere in this chain, and it has yet to come the way Google did, they're backwards. They want to be THE leader and COMPETE with Google ? They're far from fit, it's risible! But, then again, customer behaviour has granted Apple permission to come from that far behind and take their time before ther satellite imagery really rivals Google's. Stay tuned. At least, Apple will still let us download, install and use the Google Maps app on their devices.