Something rather strange happened this week. After years of endless success with their seemingly midas touch, Apple unleashed a product on their adoring customers that wasn’t met with worldwide acclaim, but instead, barrages of criticism.

Apple’s Maps application, a replacement of Google Maps on the new iOS6, angered customers earlier this week with its unavoidable inaccuracies and lack of practicality. Many have complained that Maps misplaced towns and cities, omitted key landmarks and doesn’t provide image clarity.

In response to the criticisms, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller did something she isn’t used to, go on the defensive: “We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a cloud-based solution, 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.”

Problems began just one day before the launch of the much anticipated iPhone 5 handset. Thousands of people have queued outside stores around the world to get their hands on a model, which comes complete with the Maps app on its operating system.

Apple decided that they wanted to strike out on their own with a mapping app, following the decision that they no longer wanted to ride Google’s coat-tails.

We’ll wait and see before judging how wise that decision was.