One way to look at this: Apple is willing to pay, in eroded market share during the transition, for earlier control of their own mapping infrastructure.
Again: isn't that a good thing?
Again: isn't that a good thing?
I do wonder if this is an opportunity for Microsoft to sell a complete platform experience while Apple is taking a breather.
Disclaimer: I just recently started working for MSFT in a position not at all related to Windows Phone. I also don't own a Windows Phone.
Apple knew this was going to happen, and did it anyways. It is therefore part of a strategy.
One problem, though: It sucks that, in order to make a move that makes economic sense, you have to break stuff for your users. And not just break. REALLY break.
Gruber talks about the options Apple had, and one is "wait one more year having less features than their competitors". Well, that sounds exactly like what Apple would do in the past, in order to have a better user experience. You know, the infamous "customers don't want this or that" that Jobs would always say when they didn't have something ready.