Apple aggressively hiring ex-Google Maps staff

Apple is one of those companies that wants to do (nearly) everything different than others. Sometimes this works out well, but in the case of its new mapping service it's a total disaster. Apple caught a lot of bad press recently because the company decided to replace the pretty perfect Google Maps with its own mobile map application, simply named "Maps".

It seems Apple didn't properly test its new Maps app because shortly after the launch of iOS 6, the web was awash with complaints about errors and even possibly dangerous mistakes in accuracy. With hospitals being mislocated, farms labeled as airports, railway stations labeled as parks, non-existing roads, towns and cities that aren't listed, etc.

TechCrunch picked up rumors that Apple is now aggressively recruiting ex-Google Maps staff to build out iOS' maps.

My source — a contractor who worked on Google Maps as part of a massive undertaking to integrate Street View and newly licensed third-party data to improve European coverage, as well as develop the platform’s turn-by-turn navigation — says that when attention turned to indoor mapping, things started to become less interesting and a lot of staff began looking around for other opportunities. That turned out to be good timing for Cupertino. Here’s what my source describes happening around that time:

Many of my coworkers at Google Maps eventually left when their contracts ended or on their own accord. One guy looked around for other GIS work and ended up at Apple when a recruiter contacted him. He had heard rumors for a while that Apple was going to develop its own in-house mapping platform, and given his experience at Google, he was an easy hire. Apple went out of their way to bring him down to Cupertino and he’s now paid hansomly as a GIS Analyst. Another coworker that was a project lead at Google Maps, left for the East Coast after his contract ended, and was recently contacted by an Apple recruiter. The position sounds like a product development manager position, and will pay him $85k+ and all the moving expenses from the East Coast. He’s gone through 2 rounds of interview and seems like a frontrunner to land that position.