Apple’s Maps

Apple has a lot more on maps than it is showing, and that is sowing confusion in the online and mobile maps industry.

Last week, online technology publications and individual developers posted side-by-side images of Google’s mobile maps with maps Apple was sharing with developers. Apple’s maps were information wastelands in the comparison, lacking such basics as the locations of public transit stops and the names of lesser streets.

Fans of the Android operating system, which for years has had far superior navigation software than the Apple iPhones, took this as conclusive evidence that Apple’s product would be inferior to Google’s.

Hold on there. Not only do Apple maps have months before they debut, Apple could, if it wanted to, come out tomorrow with much of this information on the maps. All those street names and landmarks are part of what Apple licensed from TomTom, the Dutch company whose maps Apple was showing. For some reason, Apple apparently removed much data from the maps as a step to making something bigger.

“I’m not sure what people are looking at,” said Taco Titulaer, the senior vice president of corporate development at TomTom. “Our maps are used for navigation in over 100 countries.” TomTom spends over $125 million a year keeping its maps up to date, he said.

While confidentiality agreements with Apple prevented him from saying very much about what Apple has, Mr. Titulaer also said that his company’s agreement with Apple “could include” additional information, like driving directions and real-time traffic movements, which was useful for avoiding traffic jams.

Apple also has a lot of data from other providers, which will appear on its final map. Some of these are very large and respected data providers. So why hold back on showing all that, and front what looks like a remedial product?

Apple would not comment. Maybe it was skinning data off the map as a head fake, a way of lowering expectations Apple will then exceed. More likely, the company is still working out all sorts of different mapping images, which will change depending on whether the map is being used for shopping, social activity or navigation. Or perhaps it didn’t want developers to have many preconceptions about what a map should look like, so they invent new things.

“Apple is creating an opportunity for developers like me to come up with different ideas,” said Scott Rafer. His company, Lumatic, makes pedestrian and transit maps that draw off landmarks and photographs, so people can follow navigation instructions like “take a left at this statue.”

Much of Lumatic’s map data comes from public sources on the Internet, which Mr. Rafer said was faster and more plentiful than any one company could find, no matter how much it spends. “The more precise location information comes from Wi-Fi connections, not GPS systems,” he said. “If a bar is open for two days, that data will be on Foursquare faster than the Yellow Pages.”

More intriguing is the idea of what Apple could do with so much choice. It is possible to see things like discount coupons offered for a nearby Starbucks, payable from your iPhone, with updates to Facebook about how much you liked that latte. That won’t seem clunky, if the phone is doing most of the work and Apple integrates the services well.