There has been a lot of speculation over why Apple
Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) decided to part ways over
Google Maps - or more specifically why did Apple decide to junk Google Maps for
its own navigational application that as obviously an inferior product.
According to All Things Digital, the main bone of
contention between the two companies with regard to the mapping application was
over a feature that provided voice-enabled turn-by-turn driving directions in Google
maps.
Google has been offering this feature free to users of
its Android operating system. However, this was not part of the application
that was on Apple's iOS, while Apple wanted this feature.
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The reasoning is that Apple felt that it was at a disadvantage
compare to Android handsets since users of Google's Android-powered devices had
this additional functionality.
It did not sit well with the Cupertino tech giant that
the company which it had chosen to provide it mapping feature also happened to
be its rival in the mobile phone space and was "calling the shots on
functionality important to the iOS maps feature set."
Apple is a company which has a very tight control over
its ecosystem and the companies that it partners with. It likes to have total
control over the products and features that are available on its mobile
devices. But in this particular instance, it was Google which had the upper
hand.
What has made it worse is that Google Maps is
obviously a superior product to anything else that is available in the market.
All things Digital commented, "Apple pushed
Google hard to provide the data it needed to bring voice-guided navigation to
iOS. But according to people familiar with Google’s thinking, the search giant,
which had invested massive sums in creating that data and views it as a key
feature of Android, wasn’t willing to simply hand it over to a competing
platform."
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