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Comment by betterth | Hacker News Reader

>It hurts Apple's customers because they are blocking a superior free product for no apparent reason but to kill competition.

Misinformation. Apple isn't BLOCKING anything!

Apple released, in iOS1, Apple Maps powered by Google Maps API Data.

Google, wanting to monetize Google Maps API access, began charging expensive rates for their heavy users, of which Apple was the heaviest user of all.

In response to Google asking Apple for millions of dollars for a service they provide for free on every other platform, Apple decide to change the data source in Apple Maps.

Google has yet to provide their own app on iOS for mapping, as they're likely pissed that their million-dollar-lunch just ended and now they have to provide a service for FREE.

I'm so tired of this blatantly anti-Apple bias.

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You do not know how much (if anything) Google was charging Apple for API access or if it increased when they generally increased the pricing. They almost certainly got a better deal than general users of the API because they are Apple and have a massive user base. We do know that Apple and Google had a contract in place but beyond that we don't know anything.

Furthermore, Apple does not get their data from "Apple Maps". They pay to license it from TomTom and other companies (though they do, of course, also produce data of their own that gets combined with the third-party sources to produce the aggregation that is Apple Maps).

I don't know how much you meant by "millions of dollars" but it was probably substantially less than the $267 million Apple paid to acquire C3 Technologies to add 3D maps to their offering.

Apple's decision was a great long term decision for them but it did hurt users in the short term (hence Cook's apology).

Do you actually know anything at all about the terms of agreement between the 2 companies regarding maps or are you just guessing here? Because as far as I know, the terms of agreement between them are not public.

Paying millions of dollars for maps is a tiny drop in the bucket for Apple and a tiny drop in the bucket for Google. Whatever disagreement they had over maps it almost certainly was not because Google charged too much. Providing additional ads/services to iOS users is significantly more valuable to Google than whatever paltry millions they could have made by licensing their maps.

You don't get to act like a child if someone makes you angry. That's not how the world (should) work. That is the issue here.

You think Apple was paying for the Maps API through the Google API console?!

Large companies do business through special contracts that have their own terms, and the maps contract reportedly is still valid for another year or so.

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