Apple Maps claims another job, Richard Williamson fired

jassimNovember 27, 2012

 

In a dramatic report today, Bloomberg announced that Apple has let go the executive in charge of supervising Apple Maps’ debut on iOS 6. For those that haven’t been keeping up, since the release of the service users have been complaining about inaccuracy and unreliability pertaining to the maps and directions provided by the device.
Now it seems as though Apple has chosen to place the blame on Richard Williamson, whose official title at Apple was Senior Director of iOS Platform Services. Williamson oversaw the development and production of Apple Maps, but he will be supervising the team no more. According to Bloomberg though, Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, is already looking for a replacement for Williamson.

In removing Williamson, Cue wants to install a new leadership team for the group, one person said. A replacement for Williamson wasn’t immediately known. Attempts to reach Williamson weren’t successful. A team at Apple has been working to fix the mapping mistakes, focusing first on some of the most glaring problems, one person said. The satellite imagery over the U.K. has been improved and labels for popular U.S. landmarks such as the Washington Monument have been corrected.

Williamson is the second Apple executive to fall due to Apple Maps issues, as Scott Forstall was allegedly let go over his refusal to attach his name to a public apology for Apple Maps.
This whole “Mapgate” issue is one of Apple’s most embarrassing failures to date, and they are clearly recovering from the hit. When the smoke clears from all this management reshuffling, hopefully we will see a greatly improved maps product emerge