I expect a lot of you are missing Google Maps after upgrading to iOS 6. Sure, it’s nice that Apple has decided to establish their own mapping service, but such things aren’t built out overnight. Even though Apple may have been working on this project for a while, particularly after it became obvious that Google wasn’t exactly  a friend to the company, the best test is in the real world with regular customers. No amount of beta testing can duplicate all the conditions that you or I might encounter in trying to find a specific location and get accurate directions.

For myself, I’ve not been enamored of the navigation systems in autos. The one in my Honda has somewhat bitmapped graphics (fixed, I’m told, in the 2013 models), and depends on a DVD to keep up to date on roads and other data. So I’m late in sending $149 for the 2013 renewal, which may be why I encountered streets the system couldn’t map on a recent extended trip. But I usually just take a Google Maps printout, which, for the most part, tends to be reasonably accurate. In fairness to Honda, their newest navigation systems are relying on satellite data rather than fixed media.

Now some of the problems customers are reporting with the iOS 6 version of Maps are very much about version 1.0. Also, Google’s fabulous Street View isn’t something Apple has, so far at least, chosen to duplicate. Maybe that’ll come, but the larger problem is accuracy. I’ve heard some curious stories, such as searching for cities and ending up with a location in the wrong country. Actually making trips from here to there may be difficult if you’re not familiar with the terrain.

Another complaint involves the lack of support for public transportation systems, which hurts people in larger cities, particularly New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Maps for iOS 6 will only present a list of third-party apps, free and paid, that provide support for such transit systems, and that’s meant as the permanent solution, according to published reports. Perhaps that’ll change by iOS 7, unless the third parties satisfactorily fill the gaps.

The core issue, however, is probably just the lack of data. You can’t expect Apple, regardless of their resources, to map the entire civilized world in a couple of years, or however long they’ve been working on their mapping system. A lot of that data will come simply from ongoing surveys, plus customer experiences, and it’ll no doubt get better with time.

Of course, the larger question is how long Apple’s loyal customers will put up with a subpar product. Certainly Apple hasn’t done so well with online services. iCloud, the service formerly known as MobileMe, remains troublesome. I was one of the roughly one percent of users who lost email access for almost two days not so long ago. As I write this column, I’m not able to update the buggy iTunes Match system since installing iTunes 10.7. I am only reminded that the “network connection was lost,” and that I should try again later. Only the iTunes Store seems to otherwise work. But maybe the servers are still clogged with people downloading iOS 6.

The other question is whether Google is going to release a new Mac version of their mapping software, perhaps leveraging Siri to offer turn-by-turn navigation on supported models. I think there are enough disgruntled Apple Maps users who’d be delighted to return to Google if the option were available, and this would be a way to grab some traffic.

But I don’t necessarily think lots of potential iPhone 5 customers will desert the platform because of buggy mapping software. Google and the Android partners, though, could still hit a few home rums with the proper advertising campaign. Instead of touting handset features nobody cares about, here’s a chance for Samsung, for example, to promise a working and reliable mapping system. A couple of “reality show” style TV ads would get the message across and maybe sell some product.

On the other hand, I realize Apple is not living in a vacuum, and that the mapping software team is fully aware of the shortcomings. I also do not pretend to know how quickly the system learns from its mistakes. If it happens in a few weeks, maybe a few missing features won’t matter so much.

Consider a statement from Apple Thursday afternoon:

Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features including Apple Maps, our first map service. We are excited to offer this service with innovative new features like Flyover, turn by turn navigation, and Siri integration. We launched this new map service knowing it is a major initiative and that we are just getting started with it. Maps is a cloud-based solution and the more people use it, the better it will get. We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better.

Some suggest Apple should have held off on their own maps app, but, being trainable, it wouldn’t get better until it’s in wide use. In any case, I will make some effort to give Maps a decent workout in my travels over the coming weeks. I will also be curious to see if possible mistakes are soon remedied. Obviously, if I get incorrect directions from the Honda, my only recourse is to upgrade the navigation DVD and hope it works better. Or go back to those printouts. With an online system, changes and corrections are apt to be made on a fairly regular basis, and it won’t cost me anything. That, itself, is apt to make me more tolerant of the shortcomings of iOS 6.

According to the published reports ahead of the release of iOS 6, it was due to arrive at 10:00 AM Pacific on September 19; adjust the timing depending on where you live. But at 9:45 AM, one Mac rumor site was already touting its availability, so I quickly launched iTunes to see if I could upgrade my iPhone 4s.

At first, I kept getting responses that iOS 5.1.1 is the latest version, but finally hit pay dirt at 9:58. Unfortunately, iTunes 10.7 betrayed me. After choosing the Download and Install option, it would revert to the previous Check for Update button. After a few failures, I quit iTunes, relaunched it, and, after being confronted with the same problem, choose Download instead. That worked and, after a successful download, I clicked Update to complete the process.

From beginning to end, the update took about half an hour. At the same time, I attempted to upgrade a third generation iPad via the cloud. The existence of iOS 6 wasn’t confirmed until 10:05, but the download of the full package, over 600MB of stuff, took roughly an hour to complete. Since I have a mighty speedy broadband connection, and the iPad was less than 10 feet from my Cisco/Linksys EA4500 router, I expect Apple’s servers were just slammed. The iPhone download took minutes to complete, so it didn’t interfere with the iPad’s update. Finally, after 90 minutes, the iPad made its final restart, and I ran through the initial setup assistant.

After rummaging around for a few minutes, I could see some immediate differences in interfaces between the iPhone and the iPad, almost as if Apple’s iOS team was being playful on the former. The black status bar on the iPhone, translucent in the OS X fashion with the wallpaper background, switches to a medium gray in the Mail and Phone apps. I did not observe this effect on the iPad.

Apple has also enhanced the bounceback feature in Mail, with an extra visual flourish. I just wonder if that is a way for Apple to stick it to Samsung, since bounceback is one of the iOS features that Samsung has been found guilty of infringing.

One real enhancement now displays the progress of all your updates in App Store. Instead of jumping back to the desktop to watch the progress bars on each separate app, it’s all in one place. After the update is finished, there’s an Open button to tap for each app. This makes the process smoother, as is the less frequent need to enter your Apple ID password. Unfortunately, I was not able to find an Update All option on the iPad; it’s present and accounted for on the iPhone. I’m not sure if this is a one-time glitch or a feature rather than a bug, so I’ll continue to watch this behavior as more and more apps receive iOS 6 updates. Apple sent a bunch out after the iOS release. Some, such as iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand, with a decent range of new features. With GarageBand 1.3, for example, you can now “Play or record with GarageBand in the background while using other apps.” It’s the sort of useful multitasking update that makes sense.

Apple also introduced the expected Mountain Lion 10.8.2 update with Face-book support and a bunch of other enhancements. Those of you who have complained about the way Save As was restored to Macs running Mountain Lion will appreciate the feature that now offers: “An option to discard the changes in the original document when choosing Save As.” If it works as advertised, the way it’s always worked in older Mac OS and OS X versions, it’s a sensible change to a feature that Apple sadly broke.

Now during the 10.8.2 beta process, The Mac Observer and other tech publications reported that Mac note-book battery life problems, introduced with the original Mountain Lion release, had been fixed in the beta versions. The recent 10.8.1 update addressed some of the shorter battery life symptoms, but 10.8.2 may have gone the final step. But that’s yet to be determined. Nothing about the problem is mentioned in the release notes, but missing details are nothing new for Apple.

Or maybe another fix is coming in the future.

Other than the flaky iOS 6 downloads, which I would blame on clogged servers, everything seems to be working all right. 10.8.2 appears to be well behaved on a late 2009 iMac and 2010 MacBook Pro. Both an iPhone 4s and new iPad are working flawlessly with iOS 6. I’m also curious how my wife will treat the arrival of Siri on the iPad. The only downside is that “her” voice on the iPad appears to be more computerized than the one on an iPhone. That’s unfortunate.

In any case, I’m particularly anxious to give Apple’s new Maps app a whirl. I occasionally use the navigation feature on my Honda with mixed success. Some of the early reviews about Maps indicate inconsistencies, and the lack of information about public transportation is a bummer. This may convince bus and subway goers in New York City, for example, not to upgrade until this problem is addressed (yes I know there are third-party public transit apps).

On the other hand, this is the initial version, and it will probably take a while to fix the glitches and add some of the missing features. In the meantime, Apple has gained yet another level of freedom from Google, which is what it’s really all about.

Implicit in some of the criticisms of the iPhone 5 is the realization that it will be a smashing success. Apple’s success certainly is bad news for the competition, but it’s also true that some media pundits feel that Apple is somehow fooling people to buy their products. Once they come to their senses, the “real” tech companies will benefit. How could it be otherwise?

For the past few days, I’ve been going through some of the concerns about the iPhone 5. You can argue in many ways about the features it lacks, such as being able to talk and surf the Internet on the Sprint and Verizon Wireless networks, or whether Apple made a huge mistake in creating yet another proprietary connection scheme.

But some of the theories are just plain wacky, such as someone suggesting that the iPhone 5 isn’t really backordered. The story goes that Apple has more than enough of them on hand, but is holding them back to, by dint of its unavailability, make it seem more attractive to potential customers. Aside from the absurdity of the theory, since some sales are apt to be lost if a customer can’t get instant satisfaction, you have to consider the impact to Apple’s bottom line. Fewer sales mean less revenue, lower profits. Why would Apple risk that, especially at the end of a fiscal quarter?

The other wacky theory has it that Apple is no longer the innovative company under the management of Tim Cook. Instead, it’s all about sales and profits. Considering that Apple, under Steve Jobs, also regularly reported revenue records, it hardly makes sense to expect anything different from a team that is following in his footsteps. Also, doesn’t building the best product improve the possibilities for sales success? Is it really fair to suggest that the iPhone 5 is not enough of an improvement to honor the memory of Steve Jobs?

You might want to look at an article from Macworld, “Steve Jobs’s seven key decisions,” which describes some elements of the strategy that made Apple what it is today. It’s very much about turning Apple into a leaner, meaner, profit-making machine. Jobs began to make many of those changes 15 years ago, long before there was an iPod, an iPhone and an iPad. If you examine the history, you’ll see the building blocks of Apple’s march to the top of the tech industry.

Sure, there have been some blips along the way, and certainly the Power Mac G4 Cube is one notable example. But Apple may be trend-setting in one respect, and cautious in another. New product lines are only rarely added, and I have little doubt that many fascinating concepts are routinely scrapped, even if they would have been given the green light by other companies.

So we have the contradiction of the iPhone 5 perceived as being a conservative refresh, because Apple didn’t add all the features you find in competitors products. But that’s what they said last year when the iPhone 4s was announced, since it looked the same as the previous model. At the time, the critics believed Apple should have introduced an iPhone 5, a model that looked decidedly different, because that was the expected behavior. They forgot, of course, that Apple doesn’t necessarily remake the exteriors of products every single year, so why did they expect something different?

Also, the critics have a hard time explaining what else might have been done differently in the iPhone 5, aside from the vague wish for a radical change. But there are design fundamentals you expect in a smartphone, such as making telephone calls. How much can Apple change the look and the feel of an iPhone before it becomes an absurd parody of itself?

When it comes to whether Apple is losing the creative mojo with Jobs no longer in control, that’s debatable. The same design and engineering team is still in place, and has been, in large part, for years. Tim Cook came to Apple in 1998, and has clearly absorbed the company DNA. Although some corporate approaches have been altered, it’s not as if Apple’s vision is different.

Some suggest that Apple has lost control of the message, because there were so many product leaks ahead of the iPhone 5’s arrival. I suppose, with so much interest in Apple gear, it is to be expected that third-party vendors will occasionally leak critical information, deliberately or otherwise. It is even possible that individual employees for these companies are quietly serving as informants to the media or individual bloggers, even though their jobs might be at stake if they are exposed.

I also think that Apple may be partly responsible for the media frenzy that surrounds their products, which reached a fever pitch ahead of the iPhone 5 launch event. Carefully selected reporters can be given briefings on background, so sources aren’t named. That gives Apple the right of plausible deniability. They don’t comment on unreleased products, and have nothing more to say, except they already said what they need to say.

Indeed, amidst the furor of the iPhone 5, the media events to roll out the new Amazon Kindle tablets, and the Google Nexus 7, were very much drowned out by Apple. Even if the media talks about those tablets yet again, there’s always the rumored iPad mini (or iPad Air) in the wings.

Predictably, Samsung has begun to run a series of ads countering the iPhone 5 onslaught. But Samsung appears to be falling into a serious trap, believing that having better specs, or more of them, is sufficient to get a leg up on Apple.

Now there’s nothing wrong with healthy competition. It would be foolish to expect Samsung to sit back and allow Apple to triumph without making a reasonable attempt to state a case in favor of the Galaxy phone du jour. Obviously, their marketing people will use any ammunition they have to make it seem as if the iPhone 5 is second or third best, but I wonder how many customers care.

Consider the new Samsung print ad that is entitled, “It doesn’t take a genius.” Now when I look at the ad, I do think Samsung shot themselves in the feet, or maybe they just don’t get it. The ad compares the supposed specs of the iPhone 5 against the Galaxy S III. In some ways the Samsung does seem to beat the iPhone, such as having a larger screen and more talk time. It’s also, of course, larger and heavier.

Some of the comparisons sound dumb, such as calling Apple’s Lightning connection port, “A totally different plug,” compared to Samsung’s use of a standard micro-USB plug. The ad doesn’t actually state the advantages of one over the other. There are also a handful of apparent OS features that Samsung feels do not exist in the iPhone 5, but it appears that Apple fans have already pointed out that the claims are just plain wrong. The ad also fails to explain why any of these features, assuming they are correctly listed, offer any real advantages to the Galaxy III’s usability and performance.

Do we really crave “Palm Touch Mute Pause”? Does anyone care?

This is the same logic that attempts to convince you that a quad-core processor must be twice as fast as a dual-core, even though OS requirements, system and chip optimizations may actually make what appears to be the slower processor seem faster than what seems to be the more powerful chip.

Even then, the results, whatever they may be, might be misleading. So we have an unofficial Geekbench report that claims the iPhone 5 is not only at least twice as fast as any previous iOS gadget, but about as fast as the speediest Android device. That might be good for bragging rights, but it doesn’t answer the core question, which is the customer’s perception of performance. If the OS is snappy and properly tuned for maximum touch response, things will feel faster even if the processor is, itself, technically slower. In other words, such comparisons will only tell part of the story.

In passing, it does seem that one scheme Android handset makers have used to deal with lagging touch response is brute force. More powerful processors with more RAM will compensate, in part, for OS inefficiencies. The last Android phone I tried, a Samsung with a forgettable model number, seemed responsive enough, though the interface still felt ragged and abrupt rather than smooth. That’s the sort of effect you can’t tune with a hammer.

Now this doesn’t mean that Apple shouldn’t have added more features to the iPhone 5, or made different decisions about how some features were executed. Take LTE support for Sprint and Verizon Wireless. The reasons are complex, but it comes down to the fact that you cannot talk and access data at the same time on a cellular network, the same problem that existed with the older CDMA networks. It seems that the implementation of LTE by Sprint and Verizon Wireless doesn’t support voice, and handling both simultaneously would have required some engineering compromises. I have studied up on the raw details, and it seems it would have meant another baseband chip, and perhaps a third antenna. Regardless, the downsides don’t seem to be serious enough for most customers, I gather.

I also suppose an argument can be made in favor of NFC support, a near field radio broadcasting scheme that would allow for such things as tapping rather than swiping credit cards. Apple VP Philip Schiller is quoted as saying, “It’s not clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem. Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today.”

All right, that’s a spin, perhaps, but I’ve heard more than one claim that NFC is troublesome in practice, and sometimes doesn’t work. I would also worry about security issues, particularly if someone steals your iPhone. But that would be true with any sensitive information you might have on any mobile device.

Now the public has apparently shown incredible enthusiasm about the iPhone 5. Apple reports two million preorders the very first day, and that means that several million more may be sold by next week, after the launch weekend. With record sales, Apple has nothing to worry about, and if iPhone 5 sales continue at record levels after the initial furor dies down, specsmanship games from Samsung and other companies won’t count for very much.