> “Everyone thinks that Apple maps are rubbish”
Have you ever used it yourself or are you just regurgitating some click baiting rubbish blog posts elsewhere? I found that in the few occasions they differ the driving directions were actually more practical with Apple’s TomTom supplied maps. Searching for POIs was lacking in some instances and it would probably be more so for Europe, but your characterization does not sound like a fair and balanced take.

It is not like I was never routed by Google to an office building used by an oil company while in need of a gas station or to bar prep classes while looking for some drinks. I also got told by Nokia/Navteq map data to take a wrong turn into oncoming traffic on a one way street during one my few tries recently.

> “The fact that people in Australia had to be rescued by the police after following bad directions on Apple Maps shows how important the mapping function has become.”
I suppose you missed the news about Australian police making a similar declaration in another part of Australia about, wait for it, mistakes in Google Maps:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/news/article/-/15610781/police-warn-of-safety-concerns-from-google-maps/

> “Google now has some influence in iOS. It can make the Android version better than the iOS version and therby try and influence people to switch.”
That does not add up at all. First of all, Google is on the record saying that they designed the iOS version better than the Android version. Besides, if Google really wanted to use maps as a differentiation for Android, it could have withheld its app from iOS completely, making the difference between the platforms stark rather than slight. Which one sounds more effective? “Use Android, it’s got Google Maps” or “Use Android, its version of Google Maps have this one button where you need it, instead of hidden under two layers of menus”.

It sounds like Google feels that it needs to be on iOS, otherwise why bother with the app? In order to overcome user inertia to get people to download it over the default version, it needs to work hard on it. iOS had roughly half the smartphone sales in the US over the summer before iPhone 5 was released. I doubt Google can afford to leave all the high end advertising revenue that would come from all these eyeballs.

> “This is further evidence that the days of differentiation within the user interface are coming to an end.”
Even on the desktop, where companies had decades to refine their offerings, Macs are selling at higher margins with growing market share while PC sales are stagnant at best. I believe user interface is part of the equation for users switching from Windows, not just Aluminum laptop bodies, which would be easier to replicate for other PC makers. Why should users be more indifferent for UI in smartphones where the screen real estate is even more scarce?