My first thought was along the same lines. What if this was a long con to get Google to release what Apple wanted for free? Any bets on if Apple Maps is gone in iOS 7 and google maps becomes the system mapping provider again?
I guess you are confused. Google was ready to provide those features in exchange for their branding and also ability to display ads. Apple did not agree to that, and now Google has that option as being 3rd party app, which iOS users now need to explicitly install.
No one really won here, but if I really would have to pick up a winner, it would be Google.
Do we know these are facts or are these pundit interpretations of nods and whispers? I see a lot of people screaming about how it went down, but they are just citing thrice-removed speculation from a blog four months ago.
Now that I've read this, I was starting to think the same thing. Apple is completely capable of creating good software. They have all the resources they need, and "polish" is what their company is all about, so why release a sub-par app?
Apple has created and released loads of rubbish software over the years, but most people have forgotten much of it. Consider the short attention given to OS X Server / AWO, MobileMe, the ongoing security problems with Apple IDs, forcing people to have iCloud email addresses in order to sync the Notes app... not to mention the VERY long span of time where Windows absolutely kicked MacOS's butt in being able to multitask effectively.
Oh yeah, and iTunes. It's better-looking now, but it remains a monster. To call it sub-par would still be kind.
Of the difficult data problems in the world, creating an online mirror map of the physical world is probably in the top three.
Let's say Apple tried. They didn't know how hard it would be, so they bought all the companies they could. They realized, "shit--this still won't be good enough, but we can't give in to mountain view." Their only move? Release 98% done maps anyway and hope Google misses the iOS map spying ad traffic. iOS maps is perfectly usable, but it's not perfect for every situation (park layouts, transit, inside building directions, more sane turn-by-turn routing).
Google has been doing massive data collection for years (mapping individual internal building layouts? street view gps trails by bike? insane on a world scale.) How can anybody possibly get close to the polish of Google's mapping data (varying wildly by country though)? Apple should have made every Apple Store a base of mapping operations. They should have sent people out with gps loggers to run, bike, walk, drive everywhere they could. Someday a company will buy google just for its mapping capability and toss the rest in the bitbucket.
That assumes that Google's search ad revenue, and perhaps their growing application service provider revenue, are going to be tiny relative to this hypothetical acquiring company's revenue.
It seems absurd now, but on those timelines you could be right. If nothing else, a lot can change in 10-50 years.
