When iOS 6 was announced at WWDC 2012 in June, one of Apple’s biggest announcements was the removal of Google Maps. Apple’s decision to replace Google Maps had pretty obvious reasoning behind it as well: they wanted to rid the iPhone of any Google interaction. Apple also felt the iOS version of Google Maps was falling behind Android as it didn’t have turn-by-turn navigation built into the app. However, here’s something we didn’t know: Apple still had a year left in their Google Maps contract.
According to the Verge, Apple had quite some time left in their Google Maps contract; however, Google couldn’t stop Apple from leaving. Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, summed up the situation pretty well in an interview with Reuters. Schmit said the following:
What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It’s their call
Also, remember how Google announced that they were working on a killer mapping application for both iOS and Android? It looks as if that’s not coming anytime soon for us iOS users. According to the Verge‘s sources, an updated version of Google Maps is still incomplete and isn’t set to hit the App Store for several months.
In short: Google was blindsided with Apple’s switch to an in-house mapping application, and they’re still scrambling to get Google Maps in the App Store. Best of luck, Google.
Source: The Verge
