Of late, Apple has been grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons, with its Maps for iOS 6 raising eyebrows and gathering criticism. However, CNET's interview with 12 developers reveal that Apple had prior knowledge of issues with the Maps app and had been warned.

"I posted at least one doomsayer rant after each [developer] beta, and I wasn't alone. The mood amongst the developers seemed to be that the maps were so shockingly bad that reporting individual problems was futile. What was needed wasn't so much an interface for reporting a single point as incorrect, but for selecting an entire region and saying 'all of this -- it's wrong,'" said a developer with three iOS apps on the App Store.

CNET spoke to 12 developers with apps in the App Store using Maps who requested to remain anonymous owing to their ongoing relationship with Apple. The developers claim that Apple was given warnings across four versions of iOS 6 betas before the software launched Sept. 19.

"During the beta period I filed bug reports with Apple's Radar system, posted on the forums several times, and e-mailed multiple people within Apple's MapKit team to voice our concerns," added one developer. The developer claims explanations on the issue were not provided. An Apple employee contacted the person and claimed the issue was "well documented."

"This has been a frustrating experience for us and we don't care where the imagery comes from, we just would like our customers to be able to have the same experience within our app when they update from iOS 5 to iOS 6. Instead, the OS upgrade broke some of the features we built within our application despite being told that only the imagery would be swapped out," the developer admitted.

Apple is offering alternatives to Maps in its App Store, including turn-by-turn navigation software Waze. Google Maps is also available in-browser and the company is developing an app for iOS following its removal; however, a release date for the same is not known.

Apple boss Tim Cook also apologized for Maps' problems publicly, which he described as a long-term commitment for the company.

iOS 6 is available now to download for free via iTunes or over-the-air on devices.