Originally Posted by
Roo Zilla They don't need to update the software. The app works fine. It's the data that's being fed to the app that's the problem. They have to fix the data stored in their servers that's pushed to the device every time the app is used.
Well,, not it's not quiet that simple. All the app is, is a shortcut to the cloud based map server. None of the actual maps are resident on the device, which requires either a WiFi or cellular connection to download and display the maps.
There are really 2 parts to the mapping system. 1) A graphic display (the Map) linked to GPS coordinates. All this does is find where you are and shows it on a display. That graphical display data comes from the server, or can be downloaded as a map set. Google lets you cache a set of maps for use in the event that cell or WiFi data is non-existent. Stand-alone GPS devices have the graphical map set resident on the device, so no cell connection required.
Then there's 2) The data the map links to, based on the GPS coordinates and/or current view of the graphical map. That data can be something as simple as a street address, or be considerably more complicated and can be a huge volume of data based on the search criteria. This has always been where Google has shined, having started as a web search engine, thus their data base is vast.
The stand-alone GPS devices have been struggling with the competition from real-time data searches linked to a GPS device (Google, Apple, Mapquest, Bing, etc..) , as they have no way to push updates of the data to the users. Thus they do updates via computer link and downloads to the devices. TomTom is much the same as Magellan and Garmin in that they use a separate company to generate the map and search databases, that then get sent to the users and subscribers. There are folks in the field constantly checking and resolving reported errors, as well as simply tracking changes in the landscape - new housing developments, road additions, etc.. This all gets added to the data base.
What has me puzzled is that Apple seemingly used the TomTom map data base, as well as Yelp for search engine data, plus other companies ?. So my puzzlement has been, if the Apple map data base is full of holes, why isn't TomTom's data base also full of problems ?. As example, one of the "easy" map data queries is address. This is a very basic search and one would think that at the very basic level for a computer map, the addresses would be correct. They are not and that's a big issue. Forget finding a Starbucks. If the map thinks my address is 4 towns over then there's a basic and fundamental problem that makes me think that there's a lot more going on with the Apple map "system" that is not going to be an easy fix.
Thus I think it's going to be a long wait.