Apple have released a letter from Tim Cook apologising for the maps cock-up. Here’s a version edited for honesty.

To our customers source of income,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class expensive products that deliver the best experience income possible to our customers us. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration bad PR this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better it go away.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we realised that we our competitors wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do compete with this, we had decided to create a new version of Maps from the ground up, even though we know nothing about mapping, rather than pay someone else to do it.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations, many of them wrong. The more our customers use our Maps the better it more frustrated they will get and we greatly appreciate have no choice but to grudgingly acknowledge all of the feedback complaints we have received from you.

While we’re frantically running around in circles improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app. We know that’s no substitute for a working, built-in Maps app, but it’s the best you’ve got right now.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world money. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard stops being a source of mockery.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO