Google Maps App Vs. Apple Maps App

By Author: Yancy Marry
Total Articles: 184
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Google and Apple, the leaders in mobile technology, have their own maps mobile application guiding users towards their desired destination and helping them search for particular spots in an unknown land. The advent of the maps app from both the Apple and the Google quarters has led mobile market researchers to compare the performance of these mobile applications, so as to help users to choose between the two.

Listed below is the comparative study of Google maps application with Apple maps app:

Quality of Mapping Data – Google is undoubtedly ahead of Apple in this segment. Upon opening the Google Map, all highway exit ramps are also marked in prominent shades, besides famous streets being marked in colors that will catch the eye. The user will also get the exact location of hospitals, parks, cafeterias, libraries, and other places of interest marked in the Google Maps app. The quality of data used in the application and the color scheme Google uses for identifying different spots make the data more readable for users. While Apple’s information is not so prominently pointed out on the screen upon accessing its ...
... Maps app, it is also inaccurate at times. The traffic data on Apple Maps is not as complete when compared to Google’s since the latter is also accessible in underground parking areas and subways. The chief complaint about Apple Maps app is that their exits are never clearly marked and there are several important streets in a city that remains unmarked on the application. Also, since Apple chooses to highlight different roads in different colors, it becomes difficult for users to identify these roads.

GUI Design – This is one section where Apple seems to score above Google. This is because the GUI features are so well marked that they can be accessed just by the tip of a user’s fingers. Though the mapping data of Google is of superior quality, it’s Maps app fails kin the design segment because the markings are often cluttered and thus unintuitive. One must make special mention of the design of the option menu of Google’s Maps application. This consists of only three dots placed in the right hand side bottom, and therefore often goes unnoticed by users. The Apple Maps app provides an additional advantage of printing, which is absent from Google Maps application. While Google scores over Apple in terms of the number of features offered, the former’s Maps app design is so clunky that it appears clumsy to users who fail to identify features they require immediately.

Turn by Turn Navigation – Here too, Google Maps app proves to be more useful as compared to Apple Maps. Though Apple has introduced the voice control feature through Siri, the Google feature is considered more polished and thus more useful. Research reports claim that while making roundabout turns, both Google and Apple Maps applications fail to recognize short turnings or unimportant by-lanes.

From the above comparative study, it is evident that the Google Maps app is more popular in features and usage when compared to the Apple Maps app. There have been previous complaints about faulty features of Apple Maps after it was launched in the mobile market last year; there have been issues on the false information being disseminated by Apple Maps, thus leading to the increased popularity of Google Maps.

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