Plum developers are careful to keep track of the technology improvements and updates released by major tech companies.  Why?  Because we are able to build and deploy IVR applications that can interface with various APIs (application programming interfaces) released by companies like Google.  Need your program to integrate with Google Maps?  We can do that.  How about Facebook?  No problem.

This is one of the reasons why interactions between the tech giants are of note to the IVR and greater tech communities.  It’s no secret that Apple and Google had a major falling out over the iPhone 5, with Apple dropping Google’s mapping application and YouTube applications from their preprogrammed applications on the iPhone 5.  Instead, Apple replaced Google maps with Apple maps, their own mapping application software.

In fact, users who purchased the iPhone 5 were unable to download Google Maps via the app store, which was a huge deal to many users since Apple’s mapping product paled in comparison to Google’s program.  Apple maps have become notorious for providing information that contains geographical errors, and the program itself lacked the high-level functionalities of Google’s program.

Apple map’s inaccuracies, once thought of merely as an inconvenience, are proving to have potentially life threatening consequences for users.  In Victoria, Australia, officers have had to rescue several drivers that have gotten lost and stranded because of the software’s directions.  Google Maps is listing the city of Mildura as being located in the middle of a national park, 45 miles away from its actual location.

The problem with this is that drivers have become stranded after following these directions, for up to 24 hours with no water supply.  It is currently summer in Australia, so temperatures can reach up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit.  With no cell phone service in the park, and no idea where they are actually located, this can become a very serious situation very quickly.

The problem has become so severe that police officers are advising users to use an alternate mapping source instead of Apple Maps.  The good news is that Google has recently made an iPhone 5 compatible version of their mapping program available for download in the Apple store.