Apple sees the signs, lets Google Maps back on iphone

Apple Inc., caving to user outrage over faulty directions in its homegrown navigation tool, has let Google Inc.’ s mapping application back onto the iPad and iPhone mobile devices.

The free Google Maps app is available in more than 40 countries and 29 languages, Google said in a blog posting. Google was widely expected to introduce its own app after the version of Apple’s iOS mobile software released in September excluded its popular built-in tool.

With the mapping episode, consumers have been caught in the middle of a long-brewing rivalry between Apple and Google, two of the world’s largest technology companies, which are competing for dominance in smartphones and tablet computers. Critics have faulted Apple’s map application for being unreliable, helping Google’s new program to shoot to the top of Apple’s App Store rankings Thursday after its release.

“It’s embarrassing for Apple to reuse Google’s map application as it suggests Apple failed to meet market expectations,” said Hwang Min-Seong, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Samsung Securities Co. “This shows how much harder Apple had to push itself to come up with great innovations, only for it to end up as a big mistake.”

Tom Neumayr, a spokesman at Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple, declined to comment.

For its own map program for iOS software, which runs iPhones and iPads, the com- pany added new features such as turn-by-turn navigation and flyover views of landscapes. The criticism of the application prompted chief executive officer Tim Cook to issue a rare apology to consumers.

“People around the world have been asking for Google Maps on iPhone,” Google said in the blog post. “Starting today, we’re pleased to announce that Google Maps is here.”

Google, maker of the world’s most popular search engine, had provided the mapping tools that had been installed on every Apple tablet and smartphone since the iPhone’s debut in 2007. The companies’ relationship has been tested since Google began providing the Android software platform for free to mobile-phone makers that compete with Apple, such as Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp.

Booming demand for Androidbased smartphones is helping Google add market share at the expense of other software providers, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Dec. 11.

Android snared 72 per cent of the market in the third quarter, while Apple had 14 per cent, according to Gartner Inc. Customers are activating more than 1.3 million Android devices a day, Schmidt said.

While Apple’s map program doesn’t appear to have hurt sales of the iPhone 5, Cook said he was “extremely sorry for the frustration” the app caused consumers. “We are doing everything we can to make Maps better,” Cook wrote in a September letter to customers posted on Apple’s website.