can someone (say, smackie) explain to me how apple was able to ban g-maps from the app store that entire time? isn't that anti-competitive behavior? the missus has an iphone and like millions of others she HATED apple maps. she said that g-maps wasn't available in the app store, thus she was stranded with apple's disastrous app. was google maps somehow not in the app store before and it came pre-loaded on the iphone?
It's a little convoluted, but here you go....
So, G-Maps was originally contractually part of iOS through iOS 5 - it was not a stand alone App. When iOS 6 came out, the contract had ended and neither party
really wanted to renew the arrangement under the existing language, though Google probably would have.
Here's why - Apple wanted more features in the iOS version that were comparable to Android's version. Google said, nope, we're contractually obligated to supply this, this and this, but if you want more, we want more access to location based features in iOS itself. Not surprisingly Apple declined, realized that Google was collecting heaps of data on iOS users that Apple wanted and thus Apple Maps was born. Prematurely.
Google then rushed to do a complete redesign of the Application and ready it as part of a stand alone app, with a ton of new bells and whistles, that Apple wanted all along. The difference of course is that Google no longer has access to the Maps required portions of iOS, but can now collect data from those that use Google Maps.
The big shock yesterday was not that it was approved - Apple would have brought the heat of fans and the FTC/FCC/[Insert Government agency here] had it done so. The HUGE shock was that Google also released the G-Maps SDK (Software Developers Kit) for iOS the same day so ANYBODY who makes an app for iOS can use Google Maps instead of Apple Maps if they so choose. I can't imagine an app maker choosing to use Apple's built in maps over Google Maps for the next couple of years.
Sure, Google doesn't have access to iOS built-in features that require mapping services, but they have opened access to anybody that want to add a mapping feature to a stand alone app to use Google Maps. That's a big deal.
