Apple and Google Expand Their Battle to Mobile Maps
Google's Eric Schmidt, left, and Apple's Steve Jobs, right, in 2008. The relationship deteriorated as their companies competed. — Since they got together in 2007, the iPhone and Google Maps have seemed like ideal digital bedfellows.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple and Google had already moved from early alliance to open rivalry in the 2010 conflict between the two companies, with the dispute described soon after as becoming more personal. Maps matters because Google Maps has been part of the iPhone experience since 2007, making it a high-visibility point of dependence as Apple prepares iOS 6.
First-order effects
- Apple's iOS 6 plans make mapping a direct competitive layer between Apple and Google rather than a background integration on the iPhone.
- Google must defend the value of Google Maps on an Apple-controlled mobile platform where its distribution has been central to the iPhone experience.
Second-order effects
- Apple can use map quality and integration to differentiate iOS, while Google faces pressure to make its mapping service compelling despite Apple's control of the device and operating system.
- iPhone users become the immediate audience for competing map experiences, raising the strategic value of defaults and built-in services in mobile software.
Third-order effects
- The clash points to mobile platforms treating core services once supplied by partners as strategic assets to control, increasing the leverage of operating-system owners over service providers.
The trend: Mobile-platform competition is shifting from hardware and apps toward control of default, data-rich services such as maps.