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Motorola’s ‘iLost’ ad uses fake street address in attempt to make Apple’s Maps look bad

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:37PM EST
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Apple’s (AAPL) new Maps app in iOS 6 is awful. And the world knows it. Even Apple knows it, and the company has vowed to improve its new mapping product as quickly as it can. The service certainly doesn’t need any help looking bad, but that didn’t stop Google’s (GOOG) Motorola Mobility from faking an address in a recent ad in an attempt to make Apple’s mapping app look inferior to Google’s Maps app. The ad, dubbed “iLost” shows a DROID RAZR M smartphone locating an address in Manhattan on a beautifully detailed map comprised of satellite imagery. Next to the RAZR M is an iPhone 5, which failed to locate the same location and instead found a similar address in a completely different borough. There’s just one problem with Motorola’s ad: The address it references — 315 East 15th Street in Manhattan — does not exist according to the United States Postal Service and the New York City Department of Buildings. Oops.

UPDATE: Motorola sent us the following statement about the company’s iLost campaign:

The screen captures used in the #iLost ad were actual screenshots from a DROID RAZR M and an iPhone 5, with a non-residential location used as an example. The NY address used in our post is located in Google Maps as well as three other widely used sources. The device screen captures are intended as examples to more broadly demonstrate Apple Maps’ inaccuracies in comparison to Google Maps — inaccuracies which are numerous and widely acknowledged in the media and even on a dedicated Tumblr blog.

[Via AppleInsider]

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Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.