“Those hoping to see Google Maps return to the iPhone might not want to hold their breath,” Michael Grothaus reports for The Guardian. “Sources at Google familiar with its mapping plans say they are ‘not optimistic’ that Apple will ever approve a dedicated Google Maps iOS app. Though the app is reportedly in development and should be ready to ship by the end of the year, the sources say their plans are only proceeding in ‘the unlikely event’ that Apple will choose to approve the app.”
Grothaus reports, “While one source indicated increased hopes that the dedicated Google Maps iOS app will eventually be approved now that Apple’s maps leader, Scott Forstall, has departed the company, another was less than enthusiastic about any increased prospects, citing industry politics and Apple’s need to save face as much as possible and ‘keep moving forward in an effort to make its obviously inferior product better.’ The source also cites the present organisation of the App Store, which, to them, suggests Apple has little interested in approving an official Google Maps app… Specifically, they point to the lack of any mapping app in the ‘Find maps for your iPhone’ section of the App Store – accessible only via iPhones or iPads – that use the Google Maps APIs to call wirelessly for location, routing or point-of-interest (POI) data.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Google’s obvious bitterness is a sign of mounting regret.
Google’s going to rue the day they got greedy by deciding to try to work against Apple instead of with them. – MacDailyNews Take, March 09, 2010
Here’s what Google’s Android looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
