> > Because Google wants you to use their services (and see their ads).
> Sure, but they also want to increase Android's share of the high end of the market and they could also have just let the inferior maps in iOS6 continue to drive prospective iPhone 5 buyers to Android.
As useful as maps are to many, and essential to some, there are an awful lot of people for who it is not a descision making difference when speccing up a phone. For them it is a very useful extra on which-ever phone they buy for other reasons.
So for all the noise about how bad Apple's maps are in this itteration I don't think it'll massively affect who buys what in the high-end market on its own, but if Google's maps on iOS6 are significantly better than Apple's maps on iOS6 it is an embarrasment to Apple and it helps cement an idea of qualty in Google's output. That may help sales of high-end Android devices because one of the common reasons for going Apple is the perception (earned in some ways) that Android is a lot less polished nd smooth-working than iOS - having a product on that platform that outperforms the built-in competitor will help fight that automatic perception and perhaps encourge peopel to at least look into the competition when chosing their upgrade/replacement path later on.
tl;dr: it is more about showmanship than any direct sales effect (and if the have most of the code done anyway, it'll not cost them an awful lot to get it tweaked and up on the AppStore).
> Sure, but they also want to increase Android's share of the high end of the market and they could also have just let the inferior maps in iOS6 continue to drive prospective iPhone 5 buyers to Android.
As useful as maps are to many, and essential to some, there are an awful lot of people for who it is not a descision making difference when speccing up a phone. For them it is a very useful extra on which-ever phone they buy for other reasons.
So for all the noise about how bad Apple's maps are in this itteration I don't think it'll massively affect who buys what in the high-end market on its own, but if Google's maps on iOS6 are significantly better than Apple's maps on iOS6 it is an embarrasment to Apple and it helps cement an idea of qualty in Google's output. That may help sales of high-end Android devices because one of the common reasons for going Apple is the perception (earned in some ways) that Android is a lot less polished nd smooth-working than iOS - having a product on that platform that outperforms the built-in competitor will help fight that automatic perception and perhaps encourge peopel to at least look into the competition when chosing their upgrade/replacement path later on.
tl;dr: it is more about showmanship than any direct sales effect (and if the have most of the code done anyway, it'll not cost them an awful lot to get it tweaked and up on the AppStore).