You don’t think Apple could have negotiated their contract to have turn by turn from Google? Just out of nowhere Google says they can’t have that feature. I have never seen a single source that this was the case, just apple fans inventing a reason to justify the situation to themselves.

but why they thought they could reinvent the wheel when they did this is beyond me.

Apple’s strategic mistake was in not buying Navigon or Garmin and integrating their already excellent products as their own. In the end, it will likely cost them more to “do their own thing.”

If Apple CEO Tim Cook was truly sorry for the disaster he caused by ditching Google Maps, he could have easily solved the problem by bringing back the app that was ditched. Why didn’t he do that?

The only reason possible is that Apple wants Google to get out of iOS, and is prepared to lose face and hurt its own users to achieve that aim.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s comments also don’t add much weight, because they were made a month ago when the mood was different, and he was probably just talking it up for the media.

Apple is making some grave mistakes, such as this one and others, that will cause its iOS platform to suffer. It’s better to have the best services on your platform, even if they are from someone else, rather than causing damage to your platform by forcing a half-baked solution onto customers. Apple’s poor services will be its downfall.

People need to think. There’s no gain for Apple at all in keeping Google apps out of iOS: not only would it be grounds for an epic antitrust suit, but it would hand a competitor a crushing advantage if they could say “Google services, only on Android.” There’s no gain for Google in not being on iOS: those users represent millions of customers/eyeballs for advertising.

That’s not to say there won’t be tense negotiations involved. Google may choose to withhold things for competitive advantage, Apple may demand Google remove features for the same reason. And during those negotiations — which we might assume are happening now — both companies will be jockeying for PR moves to strengthen their leverage. I’d bet a great deal Google has leaked this complete non-story to fire a warning shot across Apple’s bow.