Eric Schmidt Laughs at Apple Users' Puny Maps: "But What Do I Know?"

I guess this is what happens when you go around pissing people off. Now that 100 million iPhone and iPad users have updated to the new iOS 6 operating system (an incredible feat in and of itself), many are itching to download the Google Maps from the App Store since Apple's new replacement, as we all know by now, is pretty terrible.

But frustrated users may have to wait a bit more, if not forever, to get a proper map, one that doesn’t, say, turn most of the east side of Portland into a nature park or place landmarks in the middle of oceans. That was what Eric Schmidt indicated, while talking to reporters in Tokyo where he was unveiling Google's new iPad competitor, the Nexus 7. “We have not done anything yet,” the Google CEO said, when asked whether or not his company had plans of submitting Google Maps to Apple's App Store. Therein was a nifty lesson in technology – about upgrading, about maps, about what happens when tech giants play empire with their users.

“We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know?” said a coy Schmidt. “What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It’s their call.” It's a bit of misdirection because despite admitting that the two firms were communicating “at all kinds of levels,” the ball is now firmly in Google's court. Just as Apple kicked Google Maps to the curb, understandably perturbed by the rise of the Android operating system, Google can just as easily deny Apple users the best mobile mapping software on the planet.

But Google is working on a map app, say sources. One complication is that Google would probably prefer to incorporate 3-D images from Google Earth so that the new app is comparable to Apple's maps. “Google is now navigating business relationships with Apple that grow more tricky by the day,” reports the Times. Emphasis on “navigating,” I guess.

With the kind of resources Apple has, it's inevitable that they will eventually produce a viable map app. But catching up with Google, at least in the area of maps, may ultimately be an impossible task, given the mammoth head start the search giant already has.

On the other hand, Google continues to claim that their primary objective is to make apps that are “available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system.” But this means Apple would have to swallow its pride and invite Google back to the party. At this point, it seems unlikely that Google would commit to a project that Apple could reject with the push of a button, and so soon after their recent breakup. "I’m not doing any predictions," said Schmidt about future Apple tangos. "We want them to be our partner. We welcome that. I’m not going to speculate at all what they’re going to do. They can answer that question as they see fit."

In the meantime, Apple fanboys will have to cope with an unfamiliar, sinking feeling: knowing that their Android-touting counterparts are enjoying an edge of some kind. At the Tokyo press conference, Eric Schmidt laughed while showing off a new feature of Google Maps, one that allows users to shift their view simply by moving the device through the air. “Take that Apple.”