News India Live, Digital Desk: The world’s largest tech company Apple is known for its perfection and premium quality, but behind every big success there is also a big failure hidden. Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly acknowledged the ‘biggest mistake’ in the company’s history, which raised questions about the company’s credibility 14 years ago. This mistake was none other than ‘Apple Maps’, which was launched in 2012 to compete with Google Maps. “Trust was shattered in one fell swoop.” Tim Cook, while reliving old memories in a recent interview, said that the launch of Apple Maps was a big lesson for the company. When it was first introduced with iOS 6, it had severe navigation errors—routes were wrong, city names were missing, and in some places bridges and roads appeared to be underwater. Tim Cook admitted that it did not live up to the standards of Apple for which Steve Jobs had laid the foundation of the company. Recalling the departure of Scott Forrestal and Cook’s apology, Tim Cook said that it was the most challenging time of his career. The failure of Apple Maps was so big that Tim Cook had to publicly apologize to customers. Not only this, he suggested users to use Google Maps or other competing apps until Apple Maps is fixed. Due to this controversy, Apple’s then software head Scott Forrestal had to leave the company because he refused to sign an apology. However, Tim Cook also said that that failure made Apple stronger. Instead of giving up, the company invested billions of dollars in Apple Maps and rebuilt it from the ground-up. Today, 14 years later, Apple Maps is giving tough competition to Google Maps in many countries and includes great features like privacy and 3D view. This statement by Tim Cook is a great lesson for entrepreneurs who are afraid of failure, “Admitting mistakes and correcting them is real progress.”
Comments are closed.