[scarface74]

This very attitude is what prompted Apple to drop Google for its native Maps app.

[Mindwipe]

And was a catastrophe for Apple.

[scarface74]

I doubt very seriously that Apple lost any sales and there were third party apps like Mapquest that offered real time directions before the Maps app had them at all.

[philsnow]

was. It's gotten a lot better.

[balls187]

Yes. It only took 6 years to catch up.

Google has better POI support, but I now use Apple Maps for pretty much all my nav needs.

[ethbr0]

6 years (and all the money) seems a decent trade off for strategic autonomy, and cutting a foot off Google-on-iPhone.

I.e. why lock down permissions if Google would get location data from every phone through Google Maps anyway.

Furthermore, it decreases the value of Google Maps by depriving them of traffic data (something that really only works at scale when the maps user base is "most people").