New Google Maps app for the iPhone, Apple goes back to the drawing board

Google Maps has found its way back to the iPhone.

The world’s most popular online mapping system returned late Wednesday with the release of the Google Maps iPhone app, details the Washington Post. This is a great additional to other popular apps and Android Phone Monitoring Software.

The release comes nearly three months after Apple Inc. replaced Google Maps as the device’s built-in navigation system and inserted its own map software into the latest version of its mobile operating system.

photo Roguegeek via wikipedia and wikimedia commons

Apple’s map program was very ineffective and turned the “setback for Google” into vindication.

Apple’s maps misplaced landmarks, overlooked towns and sometimes got people horribly lost. In one example brought to light this week, Australian police derided Apple’s maps as “life-threatening” because the system steered people looking for the city of Mildura into a sweltering, remote desert 44 miles from their desired destination.

Google hails its new iPhone app as a major improvement from the one ejected by Apple.

“We started from scratch,” said Daniel Graf, mobile director of Google Maps. Google engineers started working on the new app before Apple’s Sept. 19 ouster, Graf said, though he declined to be more specific.

Google’s mapping app for the iPhone doesn’t include ads, but that will likely change, based on the steady stream of marketing flowing through the Google maps app on Android phones.

The additional tools in the free iPhone app include turn-by-turn directions. Google’s previous refusal to include that popular feature on the iPhone app —while making it available for smartphones running on its own Android software— is believed to be one of the reasons Apple decided to develop its own technology. The increasing friction between Google and Apple as they battle for leadership in the smartphone market also played a role in the mapping switch.