Image Courtesy of Apple

The debacle over Apple’s map technology took another twist the other day when the conglomerate was essentially forced to apologise for the mess it made.

Apple thought it was on to a good thing when it announced its own in-built map application after Google pulled the plug; however, while the iPhone 5 announcement was successful, the secondary announcement went pear-shaped when it was realised that the maps customers were expected to use were not fit for purpose.

In fact, it seems that Apple’s customers were not just disappointed: they were furious. Examples of mishaps were the additions of airports where none previously existed and the relocation of cities. Other problems were misspellings of well-known places, such as Duncaster instead of Doncaster.

Apple, to its credit, has tried to quell the frustration experienced by consumers. Previous problems such as the iPhone antenna saga were very badly handled at the time, but it seems that the American company has learned from this.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said: “We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make maps better.”

“While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app,” he continued.

Apple had, up to this time, been using Google’s mapping app, but negotiations between the two corporations broke down. Mr Cook is now advising customers to continue using Google Maps for the time being.