Apple CEO Tim Cook has issues an apology for the Apple Maps app in a letter to customers on the Apple website.
In the letter Cook says he was "extremely sorry" for the trouble caused when Apple replaced Google's maps with its own app. He also acknowledges that the new Maps do not meet the company's standards, but also states the company had to start from scratch to create the new app.
"We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS," Cook said. "As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up."
The new mapping software was criticized by technology gadget reviewers for not providing directions for public transportation and sometimes gets losing it way when helping to navigate users. These issue made the new app less geographically reliable than Google's service.
According to Cook, a 100 million people have already used the new Maps, and that the more people use it, the better the service would get. But that customer should turn to alternatives.
"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," Cook said.
In previous versions of iOS, the Maps app was powered by Google's maps service, but Google has recently become more of a competitor to Apple due to their Android operating system that powers phone for many manufactures.
Cook promises that the new application will be fixed and will meet the expectations of Apple customers.
"Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world," Cook said. "We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard."
The iPhone 5 comes in either white and silver or black and slate, and is available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model. The phone has broken records for sale since its release.
