It's now been over a week since the release of iOS 6 and the Apple Maps app remains very broken. We posted an article on some of the more interesting artefacts on launch day and, though elements have improved since, there are still many errors, with the most common in the UK appearing to be poor and heavily pixelated satellite imagery.
It's perhaps then, no surprise that many users are looking to maps.google.com as an alternative, however, on the iPhone's Safari web-browser, not all functionality is currently present; Voice Navigation and Street View are missing. It could be quite some time before anyone sees voice navigation on Google's web-browser maps service, as the feature is currently limited to native applications, however Street View is a different matter and it's suggested by the New York Times, that Google is working on making this service compatible with Safari Mobile and that it will launch in two weeks.
Meanwhile, during a trip to Japan, Google exec, Eric Schmidt, squashed hope of a native Google Maps app any-time soon; "we haven't done anything yet." he stated. The New York Times, however, has suggested that an app is now in the works and will be available before the end of the year and, that Google's unpreparedness was caused by Apple providing the firm with notice that it would be ditching the Maps provider only three months ago.
If Google is working on a Maps app, it's certainly in no rush; Eric went on to state that "Apple is the exception, and the Android system is the common model, which is why our market share is so much higher," adding that success was often ignored by the media, which he said was “obsessed with Apple’s marketing events and Apple’s branding.”
Summarising his point in one sentence, Eric stated "That's great for Apple but the numbers are on our side." Reminding us that Google makes its money from advertisement and search and, that it's all about the number of users, not which device they connect from. From Google's point-of-view, Android offers a user-base and thus advertising profit, almost three times that of the Apple mobile community.
