[nerdponx]

Ultimately, free is the culprit.

Sort of. The real question is: how much does Google make with their free ad-driven model? You'd have to beat that with a paid model (taking into account the reduced userbase as a result of increasing the perceived price).

Also there is genuine value to having $0-cost high-quality maps, Internet search, translation, and many many many other things available to the general public, worldwide. I don't think you could match that same level of public benefit with a paid-only product.