Apple Maps Handled the ‘Lake America’ Issue in a Clever Way. Here’s How It Differs From Google
The way that Apple addressed the ‘Lake America’ and ‘Lake Ontario’ debate is a lesson for any company with a global presence.
President Trump’s recent executive order mandating an official name change of Lake Ontario to Lake America led to raised eyebrows internationally, and reportedly broad “dismissal and ridicule” across the border in Canada. But when Trump makes a move like this involving big tech interests, the companies tend to comply. So Google responded to the official name change speedily; its Maps product is one of the most commonly used Google tools with some two billion users. The swift response did garner Google a torrent of negative reviews for Maps online, however.
Apple took a few more days to respond.
But the Cupertino tech company has now officially changed how Lake Ontario is referenced in Apple Maps. Yet it’s done so in a slick way. There are lessons here for anyone serving customers internationally.
Google, in a dedicated blog post, notes
Google, in a dedicated blog post, notes that it’s merely reflecting the letter of Trump’s executive order, which commands the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to change the official U.S. name. Because the GNIS has “formally changed,” Google’s systems will follow. Since Google Maps adapts to “reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the U.S., people using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’” the company explains, Canadians will see the over 400 year-old name, and everyone else will see both names. It’s simply another update that follows its “long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country,” Google notes.
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Apple has followed suit in its own way. If, for example, a user’s iPhone has its region and language set to the United States in the Settings app (look for that in General, then Language & Region), then Apple Maps will show the name as “Lake America,” even if that person is, say, traveling to another country.
I checked, since I live in Portugal, and my iPhone showed the traditional lake name, until I switched my phone’s region to the U.S., when I saw the new Lake America title. This means the name change is not geofenced for Apple users. In other words, it’s not triggered by the users’ geographic location—a French traveler to the U.S. would see the lake named as they’ve always known it, reflecting international naming habits and norms. For comparison, Google Maps on my phone shows Lake America/Lake Ontario even if I set my phone to the U.S. region.
This is a clever way for Apple to comply with the Executive Order’s letter without bowing to its somewhat nationalistic spirit. It privileges someone’s identity, in a sense, over where they happen to be in the world at the time. It also reflects the fact that Apple is sensitive to its vast international user base, with each nationality having its own identity, habits, and other defining characteristics. Apple’s welcome message, shown when new devices boot up, cycles through a long list of international ways of saying “hello,” for example.
Source: www.inc.com
