“Today, we know that the iOS version of Google Maps has been inferior to its Android sibling for sometime, turn-by-turn directions being the most obvious example,” Kontra writes for counternotions. “Clearly, Google and Apple have far better ability to integrate apps into their own respective mobile ecosystems, but we don’t really know the contractual, commercial and even technical considerations for the disparity in this particular case.”
“After outsmarting and outspending its then-chief rival MapQuest, Google has been dominating mobile maps on phones for half a decade. From a corporate rivalry standpoint, Google is in an enviable position at the moment, certainly amused by the current kerfuffle around the iOS 6 Maps app,” Kontra writes. “However, it would be monumentally myopic of Google management to “decide not to build an [iOS native map] app” or to think Apple Maps’s lack of polish will cause any meaningful migration of iOS users to Android or that Apple management would let that happen.”
Kontra writes, “Samsung may have become the biggest smartphone seller by volume, but I’m sure even Andy Rubin realizes Samsung doesn’t have 400+ million users (each with a credit card account) who have proven themselves to be the world’s most lucrative online demographics. These users have invested billions in Apple’s media and app ecosystem. They are the happiest bunch whenever product satisfaction surveys are taken. They upgrade regularly. They are loyal. They frequent Apple Stores with alarming regularity. They wait in line, rain or shine. They are not going anywhere.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote earlier today:
This is all Google’s loss: iOS users are the ones with money to spend and the will to spend it; you’ll have no access to hundreds of millions of the world’s cream-of-the-crop consumers… That’s right, the world’s best, most well-heeled mobile consumers do not use Google Maps. Meanwhile, Apple’s Maps will relentlessly continue to improve… Let Google’s rueing continue unabated.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Synth” for the heads up.]
Apple needs their own Maps to create their own Maps API so any developer can add location support in a few lines.
This is either to stop Apple customers’ personal data going to Google (for privacy) or so that data goes to Apple for their iAd intelligence.