Apple Recruiting Ex-Google Maps Workers to Fix iOS 6 Maps

Apple offers a previous Google Maps employee some tantalizing compensation.

Unless you've been living under a rock this past week, you've probably heard by now that Apple's new Maps application is a bit of a failure. Since its release, the iOS 6 app has been taking heavy fire from all directions of the blogosphere, and even the real world as well. From the London Underground, to a number of online accounts, and competitors like Motorola, its been a rough week for Apple.

Now, the company is desperately trying to make things right, so much so that it is hoping to hire as many ex-Google Maps developers as possible. According to a source with connections from both teams, Apple is aggressively trying to recruit software engineers that previously worked on the Google Maps application.

The source told Techcrunch:

"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 [sic] 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.

Although this is just one example, it isn't exactly an uncommon practice in the industry. What is strange, however, is the fact that Apple released its lackluster maps app to begin with. Rather than working with a number of reputable GPS companies, Apple decided to bite off way more than it could chew. Luckily, there is one good thing about Apple's iOS 6 Maps application. It can't possibly get any worse...we hope.

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