[thaumasiotes]

That seems like a pretty simple fix for Microsoft to make on behalf of every Windows Phone user... Google can't compel MS to identify its phones for Google's benefit.

[arcticfox]

Google would just change the user-agent they were blocking to whatever Microsoft changed it to. It was intentional.

[thaumasiotes]

Again, there's no rule that says devices must have unique user-agents. Once you've established that Google wants to block Windows Phone from using maps, you can send the user-agent string of something they don't want to block.