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Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

This is a brilliant strategy on Google's part. Wait until enough people are unhappy, make them really miss Google, and then release it. Suddenly, it becomes the number 1 app in the app store and really puts egg on Apple's face.

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> make them really miss Google

Presumably this will also lead to a number of iOS to Android converts - it's not just about making Apple look bad, it's demonstrating on a large scale that "Android is better, see?".

I wonder how far Google would go for that, though. If they released a Google Maps iPhone app they'd have advertising and immense amounts of data on people's locations, search history, etc. etc.

That might be worth more to them than x% more Android users.

If the person moves to Android, google gets both.

Right, but that's considerably higher friction than downloading an app. Stands to reason that many fewer people would do it.

I'm not sure you can call that "strategy" if a prerequisite is that your competitors customers are unhappy. :)

Apple's hubris (and a not inconsiderable amount of hype by the media, no doubt related to some PR misteps by Apple) gift wrapped this for Google. All they need to do is write an app.

But why would they do that? If they do release an app, Apple maps will be mostly on par someday, and Google will lose those Google Maps users. If they never release a Google Maps app, that'll make iOS a subpar platform when it comes to maps for some time, and will be an additional incentive for some people to switch to Android.

It could be Google's sweet revenge to the pain that Apple inflicts on the Android ecosystem. Google probably has some patents in that area is well...

Maybe, but recognize that that's the kind of hardball that got Apple in trouble here. Maps are just maps. A few people might switch to Android because of it, but not all that many.

The real value here is marketing: "Google has the best maps" is the message the public is getting. And the bit that Apple gift-wrapped is "iPhones have bad maps, use the Google ones".

You can't buy that kind of spin. In the space of a week the public perception on this issue went from "iOS is the best at everything" to "Android has better maps". It's not in Google's interests to rock that boat by picking a fight and making themselves look like the bad guy to existing iOS users.

> Maps are just maps.

Highly disagree. Maps are not just maps. It's one of the core solutions of the platform and I would argue one of the main reasons people buy smartphones over "dumb" phones.

Have you ever listened to someone complain about Blackberry's? For me, that conversation usually starts with "I can't use google maps on my Blackberry".

Exactly. I spent $50 just for a car dock for my phone because I could then use it for nav just like my old Nuvi (only waaay better). If the maps/nav sucked I never would have done that.

I had a trackball blackberry (Tour) for two years, and I was fairly satisfied with google's native Maps app [1]. While it doesn't include 3d navigation, it has routing, layers, transit, traffic, street view, and places -- just about everything the webapp provides. At the time (2010-2011) Google updated it every month or so with new features -- in that sense it was vastly superior to the iOS Maps app which google didn't control.

[1] http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/

I have a blackberry, had a curve for many years, waiting to see what this year yields in the way of a replacement, but one of things that you can't criticize the blackberry for is maps. Google maps works just fine, showing directions, traffic and all the other good stuff. Even streetview works.

You can criticize the blackberry for its browser, but maps, keyboard, camera are still as good or superior to the competitors. The camera has fewer megapixels, but takes great photos, the keyboard is rock solid and better than any on-screen keyboard, but browsing sucks big time for sure.

Interesting. I've never heard this from someone with a Blackberry before. Whenever I ask someone with a Blackberry to give me directions (like when I'm driving for example) they usually just ask me to use my iPhone because it's easier. My understanding is that it largely has to do with the poor scrolling on a Blackberry as compared to the iPhone/Android app.

Either way, point taken.

Why would they do that? Presumably to attempt to prevent or delay Apple maps as a valid competitor. The Apple maps fiasco is high profile enough that I believe a Google Maps iOS app would take a noticeable share of iOS 6 users away from Apple maps. Also, Google presumably has traditionals ways of generating revenue from their maps (sponsored POIs, subtle ads in search results, etc.).

> Google probably has some patents in that area as well...

If Google wants to play hardball, then they will engage in a constant low-level of harassment against the 3rd party transit app providers, ensuring that urban populations will experience a lot of pain on iOS 6. In the meantime, there will be Android.

I wonder if Google hasn't already been implementing a Maps based strategy? I still have my original iPhone, and Google Maps is much better on iOS 3.1 than it is on iOS 5.1. For one thing, iOS 3 Maps never loses a set of directions in the middle of a trip. iOS 5.1 does that all the time. The iOS 3 maps is also more responsive on EDGE than the iOS 5 maps is on 3G.

Isn't that how many businesses are born? By solving a "problem" that people can't currently solve or not in an easy way, and giving them the solution for that?

The strategy he was talking about was about what to do once Apple did something that made their customers unhappy, whether to release a fix immediately or wait. Many, many business strategies are built around a competitor making customers unhappy in some way.

Yes, and while Google is waiting to release Apple is having to invest in their mapping app just to quash some of the bad PR all the while knowing that as soon as their app fixes most of the glaring defects Google can release a superior product and overshadow them. It will be interesting to see if Apple can close the gap in the places that matter.

The kicker would be if Google put the app into the app store for like $1.99 or something.

If they did I wouldn't hesitate one second to buy it. I posted a comment on here recently about all the steps I had to go through just to try to get bus directions now with the Apple Maps app. Even if it worked the number of times I have to tap something else just to get to the directions is silly. And not well integrated at all. With google maps its just get directions, where from, where to, what type of transportation, and then the arrow button (go). With apple it's get directions, then choose bus, then where from, where to, go, wait for the App Store to open, find the routing app you've purchased in the list, tap route, hope that the app got the directions correctly from the maps app (this step I've never completed successfully). And finally get the directions.

There is a serious lack of integration.

It would be a fun day if that happens but it is highly unlikely. All of google products are either free or ad supported. Ads (or all the other forms of revinue) are in the DNA of maps and they are definately not going to change the whole maps platform for a paid ios version of maps. Either that or release a paid maps that also has ads, make no sense.

Having used Google Maps in android and apple's maps in iOS 6, I have to say that Apple is doing a pretty good job. The UI in android can be very frustrating (the layers metaphor can feel very clunky), and the navigation never, ever worked as well in android as it has in iOS (ymmv, of course). They certainly need to work on their POI database, but apple has made a fairly good first iteration. If Google released a maps app that is only as good as their android version I probably wouldn't bother downloading it.

And users for who Apple's app work good enough just forget about google maps, and the market for mobile maps benefits from the competition. Win-win for everyone.

Wouldn't it be a better strategy to release it straight away so Apple doesn't get to harvest as much data from users potentially making Apple Maps better?

If no one uses Apple Maps then there isn't much Apple can do to compete.

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