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Comment by joshmlewis | Hacker News Reader

Apple had an interesting choice here, they could allow it, or they could not allow it. If they didn't, Google had a very good opportunity to slam Apply publicly and get users riled up, and enemies more ammunition. They chose the latter, which I think is the best choice as they now have real competition and they'll have to step up their game. This is app number two that will probably take place over the natively installed apps now by Google.

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What would Apple have gained by not allowing it?

They have a history of being very picky about allowing certain apps that compete with their core products.

Google Voice for example. Apple felt that another app having a dialer would be confusing to users. I'm not sure what excuse they'd have to block Google Maps, given the large selection of mapping apps available, but I wouldn't put it past them to come up with something.

Google Voice is in the App Store these days. It's pretty clear that they've worked to come up with a fairer and more consistent set of approval guidelines.

They also have a more recent history of literally promoting "competing" maps applications in the App Store after a botched launch of Apple Maps.

I think what you're talking about is just that: history. There is a slew of email, weather, web browsers etc. All in the App Store competing with their native versions. There have been for a while.

Two things:

1. Google now gets stats from millions of iPhones. Which can be used to infer important sales information in different regions.

2. Maps improve as more people start using them. If more users are on Google Maps, Apple's own product improves at a slower pace.

Why people insist Apple made their own map app because they wanted to take Google out?

Hasn't it been stated already that the original Google-backed apps weren't being updated anymore and the contract expired?

It's the same situation as the YouTube app. Why would Apple not allow the Google Maps app?

If anything, this was actually good, now we have 2 map apps and Google is forced to make a good one, just riding on the superior mapping data won't cut it.

Apple Maps will always have way more users since it's installed by default and will always be the default maps application.

It will be interesting to see - Google Maps is pretty darn good and has a great brand. I'm willing to wager that, because people are incredibly lazy (and, honestly, the vast majority probably don't care as much as we do) - that a small majority will continue to use IOS6 maps - but I don't think it will be way more.

What is app number 1?

Presumably the Gmail app. Well worth a try if you've been using the Apple default.

It's actually Chrome, I use it 90% of the time. The other 10% is when things open in Safari. Apple could be a little looser about setting which apps to open by default.

Nobody knows, I don't know anyone with Google Chrome or Google Mail. So obviously this demographic is different when asked outside of hn.

> is is app number two that will probably take place over the natively installed apps now by Google.

Which is 1?

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