Take A Closer Look At The Icon For Apple's Terrible Maps App
iPhones used to come with Google Maps, but Apple booted Google after the two companies were unable to negotiate a new deal. — The whole thing fell apart over turn-by-turn directions. — The problem for Apple is, everyone (well, almost everyone) hates their maps app.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's buggy iOS 6 maps rollout has been drawing widespread user complaints since September 20, and this piece adds the backstory: iPhones shipped with Google Maps until the two companies failed to negotiate a renewal, with the talks collapsing specifically over turn-by-turn directions — a feature Google was unwilling to license on Apple's terms.
The story has travelled unusually wide for an icon-design angle: Digital Inspiration notes Apple has quietly dropped its 'most powerful mapping service ever' marketing claim, while TechCrunch reports Apple is heavily promoting rival map apps inside its own App Store — an implicit admission that the built-in replacement isn't landing.
First-order effects
- iPhone 5 and iOS 6 buyers lose turn-by-turn navigation entirely, and Apple is reduced to steering them toward third-party map apps in the App Store to plug the gap.
- Apple's own marketing retreats in real time, retiring the 'most powerful mapping service ever' claim it used at the iOS 6 announcement.
Second-order effects
- Google loses its default placement on hundreds of millions of iPhones, turning Google Maps from preinstalled infrastructure into an app that must win downloads — while rival map makers get rare App Store promotion from Apple itself.
- The failed turn-by-turn negotiation shows where the leverage sat: whoever owns the routing layer controls the feature, so Apple can no longer rely on Google to fill it.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Apple will have to build or buy its own mapping stack rather than license one, making maps a capital-intensive in-house capability for any platform that wants full control of its device experience.
- Default-app placement on mobile platforms becomes a bargaining chip with real price tags attached, pushing other preinstalled Google services on iOS toward the same renegotiate-or-lose crossroads.
The trend: Platform owners are pulling core services in-house even when the incumbent supplier's product is better, trading immediate quality for long-term control of the stack.