> I keep hearing people say "They should have ran a Apple Maps (with Apple data) beta concurrent with the Apple Maps App with Google Data (the maps app in iOS 5 and below.)"

I haven't heard any of this.... all I've heard was "why didn't they wait till it was ready?" But you're welcome to provide relevant sources if you want.

> But they might not be able to ship another map application on iOS while they had the agreement with Google.

Irrelevant. It's Apple's closely defended ecosystem, why would Apple ever agree to a stipulation like that? Does that sound like *anything* Apple would do?

> I think the terms of the agreement may have been unpalatable to Apple. (I'm still unclear about a maps on the web replacement.)

Certain elements were unpalatable to both sides; don't try and protect Apple in this. Both sides had elements they refused to budge on.

From WSJ:

"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."



> Also, who at Google decided to NOT build a maps application in house for a case like this?

Maybe because Apple let them know last minute that they were removing it from iOS6? Google provided the API for the app, but Apple built the old maps app using their data. Why would Google bother building an iOS Maps app well over a year before the contract would expire?

From Verge (the first paragraph!):

"Apple's decision to ship its own mapping system in the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 was made over a year before the company's agreement to use Google Maps expired, according to two independent sources familiar with the matter. The decision, made sometime before Apple's WWDC event in June, sent Google scrambling to develop an iOS Google Maps app — an app which both sources say is still incomplete and currently not scheduled to ship for several months."


> In the meantime Motion X, Garmin, TomTom, Waze,Mapquest,Navigon, and other mapping applications have an opportunity to fill this gap. Plus maps.google.com works pretty well for everything except turn by turn.

Great. You go do that then.