The phone as a whole is different story, but rehashing iPhone vs the World on individual features is not even a contest.

>http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304543904577398502695522974-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwNDEwNDQyWj.html
>
>Since they got together in 2007, the iPhone and Google Maps
>have seemed like ideal digital bedfellows.
>
>Google Inc.'s GOOG -1.81% blockbuster map service—which allows
>web users to find businesses, check traffic conditions and get
>directions—has helped Apple Inc.'s AAPL -0.68% iPhone become
>wildly successful. Surging iPhone use has, in turn, driven
>tons of web traffic to Google's search engine through Google
>Maps.
>
>But not for long. Mobile map technology is about to become the
>latest battleground in the two tech giants' escalating war
>over who dominates the future of computing.
>
>Later this year, Apple is planning to oust Google Maps as the
>preloaded, default maps app from the iPhone and iPad and
>release a new mapping app that runs Apple's own technology,
>according to current and former Apple employees. Apple could
>preview the new software, which will be part of its next
>mobile-operating system, as soon as next week at its annual
>developer conference in San Francisco, one person familiar
>with the plans says. Apple plans to encourage app developers
>to embed its maps inside their applications like
>social-networking and search services. Technology blog 9to5Mac
>earlier reported that Apple will launch its own maps app in
>its next mobile-operating system.
>
>Apple has been hatching the plan to evict Google Maps from the
>iPhone for years, according to current and former Apple
>employees. The plan accelerated as smartphones powered by
>Google's Android software overtook the iPhone in shipments.
>
>
>It's Apple versus Google in a battle of the maps as Apple is
>expected to unveil its new map app. WSJ's Jessica Vascellaro
>has the details.
>
>Apple has quietly acquired at least three cutting-edge map
>companies, melding their technology with its own. Last fall,
>Apple took a first step in developing a proprietary mapping
>service with the virtually unnoticed release of a
>"geocoder"—the brains behind a mapping app that translates a
>phone's longitude and latitude into a point on a map, like an
>address. Before that, it relied on Google's geocoder.
>
>Mobile ads associated with maps or locations are estimated to
>account for about 25% of the roughly $2.5 billion spent on
>mobile ads in 2012, according to Opus Research, up from 10% in
>2010. That is expected to grow as the number of location-aware
>software apps grows.
>
>But more than ad revenue, Apple is going after the map market
>to have more control over a key asset in the widening
>smartphone war. Google Maps is used by more than 90% of U.S.
>iPhone users. So Apple believes controlling the mapping
>experience and offering features that Google doesn't have can
>help sell more devices and entice developers to build unique
>apps for iPhone users.
>
>
>In the short term, Google will lose some ad revenue and miss
>out on data about what local businesses people are searching
>for—which it uses to pitch retailers on buying certain ads.
>Longer term, it is likely to hurt Google's ability to generate
>map-related revenue, according to former Google employees.
>
>A Google spokeswoman said it would be premature to comment on
>something that hasn't happened.
>
>Apple's turnabout on Google goes well beyond maps. How the war
>plays out will help shape how people use technology for years
>to come.
>
>"Apple is aiming squarely at Google on multiple dimensions,"
>says Rajeev Chand, a managing director at investment bank
>Rutberg & Co., citing mapping and Web search. "Google and
>Apple are in a battle over data, devices, services, and the
>future of computing. This is the historic battle of today."
>
>For years, Apple and Google were models of cooperation. Each
>largely stuck to its separate world—Apple made computers and
>other hardware; Google offered Web search and sold online ads.
>Apple's longtime chief, Steve Jobs, had close relations with
>Google chief Eric Schmidt, who sat on Apple's board of
>directors from 2006 until 2009.
>
>The rise of the iPhone and other smartphones changed all that.
>Mr. Jobs felt blindsided by Google's push into mobile devices
>with its own Android operating system. Google has since
>entered the hardware business directly, buying Motorola
>Mobility Holdings, which makes phones. Google recently also
>launched a music, movie, book and mobile-app store to compete
>with Apple's iTunes. Android-phone shipments now surpass
>iPhone shipments globally.
>
>Some Google executives privately say they think Apple is
>trying to wean iPhone users away from using traditional Web
>search on its phones.
>
>The use of Google search on the iPhone is believed by several
>mobile industry analysts to generate the majority of Google's
>mobile search-ad revenue. Google has accelerated its plans to
>develop its own voice-activated search assistant for
>Android-powered mobile devices, which is expected to launch
>later this year, these people said.
>
>Apple's goal is to develop a "holistic" technology that
>integrates maps with other Apple software, says a person
>briefed on the strategy. For instance, if Apple's iCalendar
>program knows that a person has a meeting across town soon,
>and traffic is backing up, it might alert the person about
>road conditions.
>
>Originally, Apple's iPhone strengthened ties between the two
>companies. On Halloween in 2006—just months before the iPhone
>was announced—Apple's product-marketing head, Phil Schiller,
>and other executives met with Google engineers to determine
>how the iPhone could use Google's mapping data to let people
>see their locations and get directions. At the meeting, one
>Google employee attended wearing a nun costume.
>
>The two companies struck a quid pro quo: When an iPhone user
>opened the mapping app, Apple would send Google information
>about the position of a particular phone. Google would then
>return mapping images and other data. The January 2007 iPhone
>news release called Google's mapping service
>"groundbreaking."
>
>Google's release of Android, the rival smartphone operating
>system, started souring things. In 2008, Mr. Jobs warned
>Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that if they
>continued with Android, Apple would head to court and claim
>Android copied the iPhone. Google proceeded, and Apple sued a
>slew of Android-device manufacturers. The cases are still
>making their way through the courts.
>
>Maps added to the rancor. That same year, Apple executives
>including Mr. Schiller sat down with Google executives,
>including Vic Gundotra, then a vice president in charge of
>Google's mobile apps, to renew the agreement over the iPhone's
>mapping app.
>
>New tensions emerged when Apple grew concerned that Google was
>aggressively gathering data from the app, according to people
>familiar with Apple's thinking. Mr. Schiller worried it could
>compromise users' privacy, these people said.
>
>Google executives felt Apple was unreasonable in insisting on
>controlling the look of the maps app and enabling only some of
>its features—like an "a la carte menu" where Google provided
>only the "back end" technology that powers it, according to a
>Google executive.
>
>The two sides bickered over a Google Maps feature called
>Street View, which lets people see an actual photo as if they
>are standing in the street. Apple wanted to incorporate Street
>View on the iPhone just as Google already offered it for
>Android phones. Google initially withheld the feature,
>frustrating Apple executives, according to people on both
>sides of the debate.
>
>Apple executives also wanted to include Google's
>turn-by-turn-navigation service in the iPhone—a feature
>popular with Android users because it lets people treat their
>phones as in-car GPS devices. Google wouldn't allow it,
>according to people on both sides. One of these people said
>Google viewed Apple's terms as unfair.
>
>Google executives, meantime, also bristled at Apple's refusal
>to add features that would help Google. For instance, Google
>wanted to emphasize its brand name more prominently within the
>maps app. It also wanted Apple to enable its service designed
>to find friends nearby, dubbed Latitude, which Apple refrained
>from doing, said people on both sides.
>
>Relations between Messrs. Schiller and Gundotra got tense.
>Jeff Huber, then a Google vice president of engineering,
>eventually started handling talks with Apple as Mr. Gundotra
>moved on to a new project within Google, people familiar with
>the matter said.
>
>In 2009, Mr. Schmidt confided in colleagues his concern over
>the fraying relationship, one of these people said. Around
>that same time, Mr. Jobs decided that location services were
>too important for Apple to rely on a partner that was also
>becoming a formidable competitor, says a person familiar with
>the matter.
>
>So Mr. Jobs began looking outside Apple for talent to build
>its own mapping technology. In 2009, Apple bought a small Los
>Angeles company, Placebase, that was trying to build a service
>like Google Maps. When the Placebase team arrived in Apple
>headquarters in Cupertino, they formed Apple's new "geo
>team"—and initially sat across the hall from Mr. Jobs.
>
>In August 2009, Mr. Schmidt quit the Apple board, with Mr.
>Jobs citing the growing competition in a news release. The
>relationship deteriorated further when Apple decided to enter
>the lucrative business of selling mobile advertising—until
>then, a business dominated by Google and smaller mobile ad
>firms. Mr. Jobs courted a mobile-ad service, AdMob, but Google
>snatched the company for $750 million in November 2009.
>
>In January 2010, Apple bought an AdMob rival, Quattro
>Wireless. The fight left Mr. Jobs more eager to sever ties.
>Shortly after the acquisition, he told Apple employees in an
>all-hands meeting, that Google's behavior suggested that its
>"Don't be evil" corporate motto was "bull—," according to
>former Apple employees. The comment was understood to imply
>that Google had betrayed its relationship with Apple by
>entering its turf.
>
>Google executives, including CEO Mr. Page, have publicly said
>that Google began work on Android in 2005, before it knew of
>Apple's plans for the iPhone.
>
>When Apple in 2010 bought Poly9, a maker of zoomable 3-D maps,
>it raised alarms at Google, says a person familiar with
>Google's reaction, which took it as a sign that Apple was
>serious about building its own service. Poly9, a small company
>based in Quebec, had built technology similar to Google's own
>satellite mapping service, Google Earth, which allows users to
>browse around a three-dimensional globe.
>
>Meanwhile, Apple's geo team worked on features that might be
>able to one-up Google. Apple kept the details secret, even
>in-house. When one member of the geo team asked another what
>he was working on, he did little more than shrug, says one
>person familiar with the matter.
>
>Apple had catching up to do. Employees worked on mapping
>designs to sub out Google's from the iPhone. They began work
>on a navigation app that resembles an in-car GPS device, says
>a person familiar with the project.
>
>Apple also began licensing data about road-traffic conditions
>and local businesses from around the world. Apple needed more
>data for a critical step: building its new "geocoder," the
>code that translates longitudes and latitudes into actual
>addresses.
>
>Apple wasn't pleased with Google's geocoding in part because
>Google's geocoder wouldn't let Apple use it unless Apple also
>showed a Google map every time it did so.
>
>So Apple engineers worked on building their own geocoder. In a
>sign of the geo team's growing importance, Apple moved it into
>the esteemed iOS software unit, which is run by Scott
>Forstall, who oversees many of Apple's top priority projects.
>
>Apple quietly launched its geocoder last fall inside its
>latest iPhone software. It has remained all but unnoticed
>outside a small circle of software pros.
>
>Since Apple released its own geocoder, every time iPhone users
>open its map app, it is Apple's technology that translates
>their position, not Google's. Software developers can also use
>a version of the Apple technology, CLGeocoder, to build apps
>that let users, for instance, tell their friends what
>neighborhood they are in or search for nearby eateries.
>
>With Mr. Page now running Google and Tim Cook at Apple's helm,
>the companies aren't bickering much in public. But the rivalry
>is heating up.
>
>Members of the Google Maps team in recent months have told
>colleagues they worry about Apple replacing their program,
>given that as many as half the people who access Google Maps
>own Apple devices, says someone familiar with the matter.
>
>The Google Maps team takes solace in the growth in Android
>devices, which preload Google Maps.
>
>Knowing that Apple might reveal its new mapping software the
>week of June 11, Google scheduled a news conference for June
>6. The purpose: to unveil "the next dimension of Google
>Maps."


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