My first thought was along the same lines. What if this was a long con to get Google to release what Apple wanted for free? Any bets on if Apple Maps is gone in iOS 7 and google maps becomes the system mapping provider again?
No one really won here, but if I really would have to pick up a winner, it would be Google.
Yes it's far fetched, but not beyond possible.
Oh yeah, and iTunes. It's better-looking now, but it remains a monster. To call it sub-par would still be kind.
Let's say Apple tried. They didn't know how hard it would be, so they bought all the companies they could. They realized, "shit--this still won't be good enough, but we can't give in to mountain view." Their only move? Release 98% done maps anyway and hope Google misses the iOS map spying ad traffic. iOS maps is perfectly usable, but it's not perfect for every situation (park layouts, transit, inside building directions, more sane turn-by-turn routing).
Google has been doing massive data collection for years (mapping individual internal building layouts? street view gps trails by bike? insane on a world scale.) How can anybody possibly get close to the polish of Google's mapping data (varying wildly by country though)? Apple should have made every Apple Store a base of mapping operations. They should have sent people out with gps loggers to run, bike, walk, drive everywhere they could. Someday a company will buy google just for its mapping capability and toss the rest in the bitbucket.
Sounds like you're exaggerating for effect but still ...
wat?
What company is at a scale to buy Google and kill its cash cow of search advertising? And why would they?
It seems absurd now, but on those timelines you could be right. If nothing else, a lot can change in 10-50 years.