Nokia's Maps App for iPhone Gets a Cool Reception

After Nokia’s Here app was released on Monday, it quickly climbed to the No. 4 spot on Apple’s list of most downloaded apps. By Tuesday afternoon, the app already had 378 reviews in iTunes with an average rating of 2.5 stars. The majority of users rated it one star.

Some of the complaints were similar to those that greeted Apple’s map service: some locations are mislabeled, and some information, like street maps for Japan, is missing. Others complained that the maps were ugly and sluggish to load. People who rated the app five stars said the location data was more accurate than Apple’s.

Guess Release early, release often works well for web services only. In the world of apps, if your product has flaws, it will get trashed within minutes. What's worse with Apps is that, when the user trashes it, they often do by rating the app unlike a web service where they would trash the app on some forum or social networking platforms. When downloading apps, users do go over the ratings and review. Bad or good review also influences users opinions. This can set a vicious cycle of good or bad review if no action is taken by the publisher.