Apple kicks Google Maps off iPhone, adds Facebook

[onehandle]

Source: AP

(AP) — Apple is kicking an important Google application off its iPhone and buddying up with Facebook rather than Google's social network, as it distances itself from a bitter rival in the phone arena.

Google's Maps application has resided on the iPhone since Apple launched the very first version of the phone in 2007. It's one of the core apps on the phone, and can't be deleted by the user.

But on Monday, Apple executives said Google Maps will be replaced by an Apple-developed app in iOS 6, the new operating system for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. It's set to be released late this year.

Apple and Google are locked in a fight over the attention of hundreds of millions of phone users, and the advertising opportunities that come with owning a mapping application.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-kicks-google-maps-off-iphone-adds-facebook-211903126--finance.html

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Big Brother Google just lost a lot of money.

[high density]

1. Big Brother Google

Replaced by Big Brother Apple.

[onehandle]

8. So Google should control all data?

I don't think so. The Google monopoly is coming to an end.

[Posteritatis]

11. I love watching people respond to statements that weren't even made. (nt)

[ChromeFoundry]

12. Why can't they let the consumer decide

which app they want to use?

The iPhone only has room for a single map application and Apple will make sure that their app is the only one that can be used??? Didn't they learn anything from Microsoft's Internet Explorer and MS Office lawsuits? Sounds like Apple dictates control over their users.

My phone happily uses Bing, Google or any other map provider for its map data. The choice is mine and I can switch with just a few taps on the screen. Oh, and I don't need to jailbreak my phone to run an app that I write myself. My screen hasn't ever cracked. The "home" button still works after 2.5 years. I don't have to stand with one leg up in the air or wrap it in a special case to get a decent connection. My friends iPhone is always in for service. Glad I chose a better product.

[FreeState]

14. Im sure you will be able to download any app you want

Just like it is now, you can download Yahoo! Maps, Mapquest etc. Google will join the ranks Im sure.

I don't need to jail brake my iPhone either. No one does, if your signed up as a developer you can put what ever app you write on it no problem.

My home button has never failed, I've always had comparable cell connections to everyone else in my area.

Its a phone, you like it or you don't.

[onehandle]

15. Google Maps will still be 'free' on the iPhone.

You can freely allow Google to continue to track you and sell your info to anyone who wants it.

[joshcryer]

17. I think between Google and Facebook, Facebook has way more personal data.

Google might be inside your head, as it were (knowing what you search for on a regular basis), but you can circumvent that with incognito mode in your browser, I would think.

[KurtNYC]

19. Google is much better at turning that info into income

Google is an active model and FB is a passive get-spammed-your-friends model.

Google has more actionable info for marketers and by design a search engine is better place to sell than a social network.

Apple is obviously not afraid of FaceBook, nor need they be.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Google maps sucks on the iPhone

This doesn't bother me in the least.

[GodlessBiker]

3. I fall on the Apple side, but this is a clash of titans. We're just potential collateral damage.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Samsung Galaxys will still have them

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. i have such jealousy for those with the samsung galaxy

[Vehl]

22. :P

I have one and I love it. its absolutely gorgeous and the lack of physical buttons makes it really user friendly.

But if you are planning to get one though, I would suggest waiting for a few months for the new nexi (more than one nexus device os gonna be announced this time around! ) to be announced, with jelly beans no less.

Ps: good to see you after a while!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. hi fellow liberal hindu atheist

i have to wait, i am locked into contract for another year. so by that time hopefully this phone will be further perfected

[Vehl]

26. It definitely will

I have another year-ish left on my contract as well.

[dipsydoodle]

30. I got mine October 2010

but must confess that other than maybe keeping an eye open here I when I'm out really only use it as as a phone. I've got the tablet too for sitting with my feet up on the sofa writing to you now. Google maps I find handy for looking to see where streets are when I'm not in the car.

[roody]

5. Glad I got G3---

Don't need facebook, I need maps.

[hlthe2b]

6. So what happens with the half dozen (or more) apps I have that integrate with Google Maps?

(probably just a rhetorical question, because I suspect I know the answer)....

[onehandle]

7. Google will have to submit their own map app later this year when iOS 6 comes out.

Gosh. I hope they follow the rules.

I really do.

[tridim]

9. Pucker up fanboyz

[They_Live]

10. What's an iPhone?

and what is this Facesbook and Googler that I've been hearing about?



I'll dive in when the dust settles.


which would be never?

[PassingFair]

13. Don't worry, it's all just a fad. n/t

[mathematic]

16. Facebook? Who cares. They're just ad spammers.

Right?

Whenever I read your posts on apple and whoever-apple-is-competing-with-now, I'm sure I'm going to get the standard financial interest disclosure disclaimer at the end. Your posts are that utterly one-sided. I'm convinced that either your income via a job or your wealth via stock ownership is closely tied with the financial performance of the Apple corporation.

I just don't get how somebody can fear the corporate power of google or facebook and not feel similarly towards apple. Even microsoft at the height of its power didn't control both the hardware and the software like apple does with mobile computing. Now that I think about it, bundling their own map program sounds a lot like what they busted microsoft for: bundling internet explorer.

[fujiyama]

18. I use the Google Nav app on my android phone quite a bit

and while the locations aren't always 100% accurate, for a free app, it ranks among my top 5 favorite.

We'll wait and see what Apple's Map/Nav app is like. I personally don't see anything wrong with bundling your own software on your own device (Google is Apple's competitor after all - I don't know why they should be forced to place Google's software on Apple's phones), but I know the DOJ saw things differently when MS did it with Windows and IE. But what did the courts ultimately rule on that? Didn't it just kinda fade away when Bush came into power?

Anyways, I'm glad there are several different free navigational and maps apps available. Ultimately, I think Android's competition to Apple has proven to be positive for both companies and forced both to be more innovative.

[Vehl]

20. In other words, welcome to three years ago Apple :) the Google maps is light years ahead

lets see What the iOS maps lack compared to their Android Google maps

No Street view (Street view is THE killer feature no one else even comes close to)
No Offline support ( Google navigation can be done even when there is no phone signal! )
No indoor maps (have you been to a mall? Airport? home depot? )
No Public Transit Directions
No Walking directions
No Biking Directions

And I bet diehard Apple fans would still think the maps by Apple is awesome. Lol at best it caught up to what the Google maps(and the Google navigation app) offered to Android in 2009.

When I drive, my galaxy nexus can even do real time satellite image overlay....or show how my destination would look like from eye level when I reach it(street view). people buying houses/checking out neighborhoods can do so without even driving there,thanks to street view.

Google transit,biking,walking directions all baked into Google navigation plans the entire route for you, on any given day at the click on a button!

All in all, what iOS6 has done is what it does best....give a mediocre, technically lackluster product for a premium price. Oh did I forget to mention that Apple also rips off technology from other companies/copies them and calls it "innovation?"


btw Appls BS'ed when it claimed it did cartography, nope. it uses TomTom, which in turn uses telenav Data. The same Telenav data Google dropped in 2007 due to its lack of detail/accuracy. Google does its own mapping and sends out hundreds of cars and people to do street-view mapping.Hell, they even have street view inside caves and the Amazonian forest!


Here is a sample of what Google maps on Android offers

[onehandle]

24. Gosh, you're right. Apple is doomed. They could never catch up with Google.

Unless... Unless they had billions of dollars to invest down the road.

WWDC 2012 = “Fuck you, Google”

http://daringfireball.net/2012/06/three_takeaways_wwdc

[Vehl]

25. Reading comprehension 101 fail

Oh by the way you quote Gruber? why not also Quote MG while you are at it?

PS: So typical of Apple fanboy posts. When pointed out how outdated their technology is, their stock reply? "But Apple makes Billions"

Apple fanboys are the ONLY people I have met in my life who are actually Happy that they are ripped off by a company! Such devotion is usually only found in religious cults. No wonder recent studies show that the brains of Apple fan-boys undergo a "religious" experience when talking about Apple


Apple Provides Fans With Religious Experience, Brain Scans Reveal
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385502,00.asp

Wallow in your cult. I don't waste my time talking to religious zealots
Say hi to your Creationist and flat earth brethren
Adios

[Xithras]

27. Not Telenav, but otherwise dead on. It's the worst, and iPhone users will be unhappy.

Google Maps originally used mapping data from a Dutch company called Tele Atlas (not Telenav, which is a different company). Tele Atlas is a subsidiary of TomTom. Mapquest was also heavily built on Tele Atlas data, as was the Microsoft mapping engine used by Bing and its predecessor MSN Maps.

The mapping data was so bad that Google bailed on their five year contract less than 18 months after their last renewal, instead using a combination of their own mapping data and data from Navteq and Telenav. Mapquest followed suit a year later, abandoning them for Navteq, and Microsoft dumped them in 2009. All cited the same thing...inaccurate mapping data.

It's wierd that Apple chose Tele Atlas as their mapping data source, as they have a reputation of having one of the worst mapping datasets for North America. Nearly anyone with a Tom Tom can tell you a horror story about being turned the wrong way down a one way road, or being directed into a parking lot that the software thought was a street, or being directed to drive their car down a walking path or unpaved road...or, in my case, being told that I had "reached my destination" as I was in the middle lane of an 8 lane freeway (my destination was in a business park alongside the freeway that could only be accessed by taking the PREVIOUS exit and following a frontage road). I trashed my TomTom in exchange for Google Maps specifically because Google was more accurate.

Basing the new iOS map application on TomTom is going to come back to bite Apple in the ass. The quality will be far below what Apple users have come to expect.

I mean, the data is so bad that even Microsoft wouldn't use it anymore. That's gotta say SOMETHING!

[Vehl]

28. Ah TeleAtlus, not TeleNav , typo :) thanks for correcting.

Google Maps originally used mapping data from a Dutch company called Tele Atlas (not Telenav, which is a different company). Tele Atlas is a subsidiary of TomTom. Mapquest was also heavily built on Tele Atlas data, as was the Microsoft mapping engine used by Bing and its predecessor MSN Maps.

The mapping data was so bad that Google bailed on their five year contract less than 18 months after their last renewal, instead using a combination of their own mapping data and data from Navteq and Telenav. Mapquest followed suit a year later, abandoning them for Navteq, and Microsoft dumped them in 2009. All cited the same thing...inaccurate mapping data.

Yep, I was gonna type Teleatlus, but accidently typed TeleNav. Thanks for pointing it out.
And yep, as you mentioned TomTom uses the crappy TeleAtlus Data, which in turn is used by Apple.

I mean, the data is so bad that even Microsoft wouldn't use it anymore. That's gotta say SOMETHING!

exactly!!


in my opinion, this is just the result of the Saint-Job's "thermonuclear" war on Google for perceived theft(stuff which Apple copied from others in the first place.lol). The end result is a mediocre product stuffed down the throat of Apple customers.

[Xithras]

29. There has to be more to it than we're hearing.

Even their religous war against Google doesn't explain this. Apple could have easily gone with Navteq, which powers Bing and is still used by Google, Mapquest, Yahoo, Garmin, and others, to allow the iOS mapping application to match the quality of Google maps. Navteq is a subsidiary of Nokia, which doesn't even offer an Android phone for sale, has no relationship with Google, and barely exists in the smartphone market at all. They aren't a competitor.

Why they would opt for the inferior TomTom/Tele Atlas data is a puzzle.

[onehandle]

31. Stay tuned.

Last edited Tue Jun 12, 2012, 07:52 PM - Edit history (1)

There is a lot of shouting going on at the Mountain View Ad Agency today.

That's all I can say.