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For Google, yes.

And users. I suppose any win for users of iOS is a win of some kind for Apple too.

At that point they're actually Google users too. So in the end, users win. Google along with them. And Apple saves face.

How is going from having your app presinstalled on every device and being maintained, for free, by Apple developers to having to write and maintain your own app and put it in the app store a "win"??

There is no win here for Google! Less users (not everyone is going to install it), less data coming in, more money spent, having to hire more dedicated iOS coders inhouse at Google...

People have a weird definition of "win".

I think you're missing some of the major pros for Google... With this new app, they control all of the branding, all of the upstream data gathering, and paid ads.

Maps on iOS were using Google's data, but the application was not Google's. The only thing Google was getting from that was a licensing fee.

Now they have a mapping application, which means now they have users.

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