Lack of voice-guided navigation led to failure of Apple-Google maps talks - report

With every passing day, we have a new development in Apple-Google Maps saga. Now, AllThingsD is reporting that it was the lack of voice guided turn-by-turn direction in Google provided iOS maps that led to removal of Google Maps from iOS.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Apple felt it had no choice but to replace Google Maps with its own.

Google has been providing free turn-by-turn voice directions in its Android maps app for a long time now, but the feature was missing from iOS maps. It seems Apple and Google had disagreement over the inclusion of this feature in iOS maps, which in the end led to Apple's decision to go its own way.

The lack of turn-by-turn directions had clearly put Apple iOS devices at disadvantage in smartphone space. While Apple wanted voice guided navigation to be a part of iOS maps, it was not the part of the deal it had with Google.

Apple even tried striking a new deal with Google, but the search giant had several conditions considering the amount of investment it had made in voice guided navigation. As per AllThingsD, Google wanted more say in iOS maps application, including in-app branding.

The company also wanted to include Google Latitude, but Apple apparently didn't agree with these conditions. Apple reportedly also had concerns regarding the amount of data Google was collecting from the app.

"There were a number of issues inflaming negotiations, but voice navigation was the biggest. Ultimately, it was a deal-breaker," a source told AllThingsD.

According to the report, Apple had silently started acquiring mapping firms and started working on its own maps, even before the talk failed. Apple had realised that in order to put all the features that it wanted in maps on iOS, it had to leave Google and launch its own service.

So, when it was unable to reach a deal, Apple decided to ditch Google with one year still to spare in the existing deal. By ending the maps deal, both the companies lost significantly. On one hand, Apple is reeling with the huge public outcry because of poor mapping experience on iOS 6, and on the other, Google has suddenly lost of huge chunk of maps user-base and is reportedly scrambling resources to build an app for iOS as soon as possible.