Apple defends flawed mapping app

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CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Apple's new iPhone 5 was flying off store shelves Friday despite complaints about problems with the new Apple Maps service, industry analysts said.

Complaints about the new mapping service include missing roads, wrong locations and a poor search function, The Wall Street Journal reported. A search for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, for example, puts it roughly 4 miles from where it actually is.

"We launched this new map service knowing that it is a major initiative and we are just getting started with it," Apple spokesman Simon Pope said in an emailed statement, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported. "We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a cloud-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get."

The Journal said Dutch navigation company TomTom tried to distance itself Friday from the widespread criticism.

TomTom, which agreed in June to supply Apple with mapping data for its latest iOS mobile operating system, said Friday its maps data provides only the "foundation" of the Apple's mapping software.

TomTom said its own mapping application "consistently gets high consumer ratings."

The Journal said Apple dumped Google Maps from the updated version of Apple's mobile operating system in an attempt to reduce its dependence on Google.