Google Inc has made no move to provide Google Maps for
the iPhone 5 after Apple Inc dropped the application in favor of a
home-grown but controversial alternative, Google’s Executive Chairman
Eric Schmidt said.
Apple
launched its own mapping service earlier this month when it began
providing the highly anticipated update to its mobile software platform
iOS 6 and started selling the iPhone 5.
But users have complained that Apple’s new map service, based on
Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker TomTom NV’s data,
contains glaring geographical errors and lacks features that made
Google Maps so popular.
“We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what
do I know?” Schmidt told a small group of reporters in Tokyo. “What
were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It’s their
call.”
Schmidt said Google and Apple were in constant communication “at all
kinds of levels.” But he said any decision on whether Google Maps would
be accepted as an application in the Apple App Store would have to be
made by Apple.
“We have not done anything yet,” he said.
Google and Apple were close partners with the original iPhone in
2007 and its inclusion of YouTube and Google Maps. But the ties between
the two have been strained by the rise of Google’s Android mobile
operating system, now the world’s leading platform for smartphones.
Schmidt said he hoped Google would remain Apple’s search partner on the iPhone but said that question was up to Apple.
“I’m not doing any predictions. We want them to be our partner. We
welcome that. I’m not going to speculate at all what they’re going to
do. They can answer that question as they see fit,” he said.
Google provides Android free of charge and allows developers to add
applications on an open basis, betting that by cultivating a bigger
pool of users – now at over 500 million globally – it can make more
money by providing search functions and selling advertising.
“Apple is the exception, and the Android system is the common model,
which is why our market share is so much higher,” Schmidt said, adding
that success was often ignored by the media, which he said was
“obsessed with Apple’s marketing events and Apple’s branding.”
“That’s great for Apple but the numbers are on our side,” he said.
At one point, Schmidt, who was in Japanto announce the launch of
Google’s Nexus tablet here, used the device to show off a new function
of Google Maps.
The feature allows users to shift their view of an area by moving
the device in the air without touching the screen, similar to the
effect of looking around.
“Take that Apple,” he said, adding quickly, “That was a joke by the way.”