I happen to know the other side of this. I get the impression from your post that we were probably looking at the same thing, just from very different angles. I think there were aspects to it that you either weren’t privy to or just couldn’t see from where you sat.
I don’t think anyone involved in this from Apple still works there anymore, and it’s been 10-11 years now so probably not even Apple itself really knows all the details at this point. From what I’ve heard the same may be true at Google; these stories are basically folklore to the current crop of the Maps team there.
In any case, as I recall it, advertising data and location tracking absolutely were sticking points. It’s possible you weren’t part of those aspects or you just saw it differently than Apple did.
On the other hand, this was all before Apple had a public marketing campaign around user privacy. The antagonism in the relationship around Maps also predated any discussion with Google of location data or ads and it arose from Android. Jobs saw Android as an attempt to copy the iPhone, and this lead to mistrust of Google in all things.
With that perspective, maybe you can start to see the other side of it. Apple didn’t want to let slip any detail of upcoming iPhone features because the concern was about them being copied in Android. While the G Maps folks gave lip service initially to being separate from Android and the idea that features wouldn’t be held back from Apple to benefit Android (and this was true initially, eg with Street View), Apple folks didn’t believe that would last.
And I think it didn’t last. As time went on, the Apple perspective was that Google was asking for things that were anathema, just so Google could point to them and say this is why you aren’t getting vector data or nav, but only as a pretext in the larger war of being able to use Maps as a competitive advantage for Android.
I don’t think anyone involved in this from Apple still works there anymore, and it’s been 10-11 years now so probably not even Apple itself really knows all the details at this point. From what I’ve heard the same may be true at Google; these stories are basically folklore to the current crop of the Maps team there.
In any case, as I recall it, advertising data and location tracking absolutely were sticking points. It’s possible you weren’t part of those aspects or you just saw it differently than Apple did.
On the other hand, this was all before Apple had a public marketing campaign around user privacy. The antagonism in the relationship around Maps also predated any discussion with Google of location data or ads and it arose from Android. Jobs saw Android as an attempt to copy the iPhone, and this lead to mistrust of Google in all things.
With that perspective, maybe you can start to see the other side of it. Apple didn’t want to let slip any detail of upcoming iPhone features because the concern was about them being copied in Android. While the G Maps folks gave lip service initially to being separate from Android and the idea that features wouldn’t be held back from Apple to benefit Android (and this was true initially, eg with Street View), Apple folks didn’t believe that would last.
And I think it didn’t last. As time went on, the Apple perspective was that Google was asking for things that were anathema, just so Google could point to them and say this is why you aren’t getting vector data or nav, but only as a pretext in the larger war of being able to use Maps as a competitive advantage for Android.