Shenanigans: Google Maps redirect issue on Windows Phones is a matter of competition, not compatibility
Sources close to Microsoft in contact with TNW have cast doubt on Google's telling of the Windows Phone 8 and Google Maps controversy. A thorough look shows that the situation …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google has characterized the redirect as a product decision and committed to remove it in its response to the Windows Phone Maps redirect. Microsoft-linked sources dispute the compatibility rationale, but that competitive motive remains unconfirmed.
The dispute lands against a longer-running question over Microsoft's mapping position, including whether Bing Maps would be powered by Nokia. It makes access to a rival's web service a visible weakness for Windows Phone even where Microsoft has its own mapping ambitions.
First-order effects
- Windows Phone users are due to regain direct access to Google Maps once Google removes the redirect, ending an immediate friction point for the platform.
- Google must alter a product behavior it publicly described as a product decision, while Microsoft's competition claim remains an allegation from sources close to the company.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft's mapping strategy, including the previously discussed Bing Maps–Nokia relationship, gains greater strategic importance because a Google-controlled destination can change its treatment of Windows Phone users.
- Google and Microsoft face a sharper incentive to distinguish their own mapping experiences rather than rely on a rival's web service to provide a consistent cross-platform experience.
Third-order effects
- The episode points to mobile platforms competing not only through operating-system features but through control over web-service access; that dependence can turn product-routing choices into competitive flashpoints.
- If similar disputes recur, platform vendors will have stronger reasons to build or secure their own core services rather than leave key user journeys subject to competitors' product decisions.
The trend: Mobile-platform competition is expanding from handset software into control of the maps, search, and other services users can reach reliably.