Charlie Rose hosts John Gruber of Daring Fireball and David Pogue of NY Times

In my view, on the transit directions, I think that’s clearly right — they shouldn’t have launched without transit — it’s crappy for everyone. But I think they must have figured they just didn’t know how to do something in time.

[…] Anyway, it does feel premature to me for them to have done this, and I think will cause a bit of a backlash when Google Maps for iOS6 comes out. But it’s hardly a Ping situation for Apple.

source: John’s Tumblr • Fear & Loathing in Nerdtown: Apple Maps & Twitter Shutoffs.

Although sub par, It’s the only maps program for now for millions of iOS6 users That’s really good for Apple.

Google Maps is by far superior. It’s the only app on Android that is by far, far far superior. Turn By Turn, transit direction and maps accuracy are also far superior. I hear Nokia Maps is even better, but you know, no one will ever know.

But you know what most people call a far superior never used product: nothing. They never know . Google needs to get maps out ASAP. Apple has made a great move because they know most people are OK with the default. They don’t switch between Android and iOS like I or other tech inclined folks may or even between apps (say hopstop for transit and apple maps for driving).

Any foothold Apple Maps gets with users is a loss to the value of the Google Maps crowd sourced, data mash up eco-system and with millions of new users with each new iOS device release and buying frenzy, that’s a lot of losses, you get a lot more users who simply won’t bother to get a Google Maps app if the Apple one is already there and all they need it for is some general driving directions or to remind them when to pay attention when they are driving. There’s a lot of family members who know how to charge their iPhone, make phone calls and face time and play music loaded by their kids or friends and just leave it alone because it works. I have a feeling iOS6’s Maps is one of those types of apps.

…It’s not Ping. That’s really not good for Apple.

Ping failing didn’t matter because not having what Ping offered didn’t mattered. No one used Ping or needs Ping. I looked at Ping, found out what it was and immediately thought: WTF. I don’t want or need it. or even think it’s cool. It was clunky and intrusive. And I don’t care what Lil Wayne has on his iPod. I had a bunch of iPods, iTunes is my music hub (I switched from Winamp and never went back years ago) and I never used Ping once. You could already share and/or gift music through iTunes, make playlists and share those too, so saying “it’s not Ping” is not really applicable here.

I use Google Maps all the time. It’s one of the few reasons I still have my crappy (it is awful) Samsung Galaxy Tab: one I got it as a “free” throw in with my G2, two it’s a great mobile access point and three maps and turn by turn is excellent. Really really excellent. I use it for nothing else. I car share, I use transit all the time. Google Maps is indispensable for me. It is one app that works great on my G2 and Galaxy Tab. As an east coaster based in Philly, I do care and expect my mobile devices to have maps, turn by turn and proper transit maps. My next phone will most probably be an iPhone (mainly because my G2 is using the OS that was released when it came out whereas iOS users get the latest and greatest OS over WiFi regularly). But I don’t want to do it if I can’t get a quality maps app and if/when I do, it will be the 1st app I get and the first app I recommend.