Mapping apps seem to compete on bells & whistles and front-end UX. But it’s really all about data. On basic levels, that’s cartographical data and real-time traffic. But it’s increasingly about competing for new features like helping you find EV charging stations or In ‘n Out drive-throughs on your route.
Apple is the latest player to raise the stakes with this week’s addition of parking info. With the help of parking reservation platform, SpotHero, Apple Maps will now display real-time availability for 8,000+ parking spots in North America. These are mostly in parking garages, as opposed to street parking.
It’s All About Data
The way this looks from the user’s perspective is parking info that’s integrated with their destination searches. After finding a given destination and/or generating directions they can select “more” and “parking.” They’ll then see a SpotHero module within Apple Maps to find and reserve parking.
That last part (reserve) is key, as this brings transactional functionality to the table, rather than just displaying availability. This will make the SpotHero integration more of an actionable utility and save users from having to visit a separate app. This is good for users and good for Apple’s bounce rate.
Additionally, users can do things like filter parking searches by date and time, as well as qualitative attributes like EV charging stations, valet services, and wheelchair accessibility. It’s also worth noting that all of the above works on Apple maps on both iOS and Mac OS, wherever trips are being planned.
All of this comes as Apple continues to rebuild Apple Maps from the ground up. This involves a combination of its own data and that of best-of-breed vertical players. The newest parking play obviously falls into the latter category. But in either case, the lesson is the same: it’s all about data.
Hard Lessons
Data’s role in mapping is a lesson Apple learned the hard way many years ago. In the famous mapgate debacle when it first launched Maps, it was all about Apple’s signature polish. But unfortunately, that’s all it had, as it was missing substance and functionality. There were both comical and dangerous results.
Since then, Apple Maps has improved considerably, but there’s still a territory battle with Google Maps. And that has become a game of one-upmanship. This is ultimately good for consumers as this two-horse race (like the mobile platform wars) brings rapid-fire mapping updates and advancements.
In fact, this article comes days after Google Maps’ latest updates (albeit, more about background data for autonomous vehicles). Expect more advancements from both players, especially as Apple continues to chip away at Google’s leading position, and continue to heal the black eye left from mapgate.
