Apple under fire for new iOS 6 mapping application

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- Apple is facing mounting criticism on Thursday for geographic errors in the new mapping application on its updated iOS mobile platform, posing a challenge for the company in its competition against Google on the mobile market.

Apple on Wednesday let users download iOS 6, the latest version of its mobile platform,and ditched the Google Maps as a pre- installed application for its own mapping service.

However, within 24 hours, many users started to complain about the service online, citing lack of public transit routing, bad directions, incorrect business listings and etc.

According to a Twitter user, the Statue of Liberty is missing from New York Harbor in the iOS 6 Maps.

Many of the complaints came from Europe. According to the BBC News, several locations in Britain have been moved or are missing from the app. Irish Minister for Justice Alan Shatter asked Apple to remove the airline icon for "Airfield House" which is not an airport but a farm.

Apple is yet to comment on the complaints.

Meanwhile, the mapping software has been singled out as a drawback for Apple's upcoming iPhone 5 smartphone which will hit store shelves on Friday.

"The biggest drawback I found is the new Maps app," said Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal in his iPhone 5 review. Mossberg is regarded as one of the most influential writers on information technology.

Many analysts and reviewers said Apple is still new in mapping service and Google has a better mapping application at least for the time being.

So far, Google has not rolled out a Google Maps app in Apple's App Store, but users can access the service via iPhone's web browser.

Apple has been pre-installing Google Maps in its iOS operating system since the first iPhone was launched in 2007. As competition in the mobile market heats up, Apple started to strip off Google's products in its platform this year.

In June, Apple announced to offer its own mapping service. In August, Apple said the iOS 6 will not be pre-loaded with YouTube, the popular video-sharing service owned by Google.

Anil Dash, a U.S. entrepreneur and tech blogger, said in his blog that Apple "used their platform dominance to privilege their own app over a competitor's offering, even though it's a worse experience for users. This is the new Maps in iOS 6."