When Apple released its
iOS 6 software complete with a rather dodgy maps app last week, many in the tech world enjoyed
having a pop
at the limited and sometimes amusingly inaccurate service. Now,
presumably because so many have downloaded the OS and are left with a
frustratingly bad maps feature, attentions are turning to when it can
get fixed – or perhaps even better, when Google can jump in and save the
day with their own maps app for iOS 6.
Reports yesterday indicated the Mountain View firm would oblige. Sources from Silicon Valley told the nationals a compatible
Google Maps would be released “in time,” but that speculation has been quashed for now, with a response coming straight from the mouth of Eric Schmidt.
“We haven’t done anything yet with Google Maps,” Schmidt told reporters in Tokyo yesterday, according to
Bloomberg. Apple would “have to approve it. It’s their choice,” Schmidt said, while declining to say if Google had submitted an
application to Apple for sale through its App Store.
So it appears Google may play hard-to-get on the maps front having
being shunned by its great rival on the latest iteration of iOS. The
search giant’s navigational app had been a mainstay on the iPhone since
its first release in 2007, and the appeal and functionality of the new
iPhone 5 has perhaps diminished a little with Apple’s sub-standard
replacement.
The maps soap opera was heightened further this morning, as stories emerged that
Apple is now “aggressively recruiting” ex-Google employees to fix the derided service, with large salaries luring the developers who made Google Maps so successful to Cupertino.
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