‘The product wasn’t ready’: Tim Cook says the Apple Maps launch was his biggest mistake — even as Google confirms that the new Siri delays will stretch beyond two years

• Tim Cook said he regretted the shaky launch of Apple Maps in 2012
• The Apple CEO said the company learned from its mistakes
• Yet it comes as Apple’s Siri revamp looks to be delayed by over two years

Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple CEO after 15 years at the helm, and after all that time you’d imagine there might be a moment or two that he looks back on with regret. As it turns out, there is, as he recently revealed to Apple employees in a leaked town hall meeting — but I’m wondering if he might have made a different choice.

Speaking to Apple employees, Cook picked the disastrous Apple Maps launch in 2012 as his “first really big mistake,” according to reporting from Bloomberg. And it’s not without good reason: in many places around the world, Apple Maps’ initial release was so bad — with incorrect directions, mislabeled places, inaccurate satellite imagery, and much more — that Cook was forced into a contrite and very rare public apology. Scott Forstall, the Apple exec in charge of Maps, was pushed out of the company entirely.