Not that I'm happy with the maps situation or anything, but did Apple really have a choice when it came to Maps? For such a vertically integrated company, having to depend on Goolge for such a critical component of their smartphone offering was probably a Jupiter sized pebble in their shoe.
Gruber is an Apple fanboy, no doubt, but he does paint a realistic scenario:
Apple had two possibilities regarding maps:
A) Pay up and stick with Google's 3rd party tile based maps, which lack Turn-by-turn and vectorized roads. Two key features that Android phones have had for nearly 2 years and which iOS was never, ever going to get. But they would have kept Google's mind-blowing collection of data, including transit, accuracy, detailed an polished satellite views and street view. It'll take Apple years to match that.
B) Come up with their own mapping solution, which is really fucking hard. Buy up a bunch of smaller mapping companies and partner with Tom Tom. Out of this they get Vectorized Roads and Turn-by-Turn but lose Google's Big Data.
I think that such rationalization explains Apple's decision. But I think they underestimated the massive enterprise involved in mapping a whole fucking planet.
It took Google years to get to where they are and they are Google. That's what they fucking do. Big Data is their game. Apple is a hardware company. No doubt there was a lot of hubris involved. "We're Apple. We can fix anything just by throwing money at it."
No, you can't. Just ask Microsoft.