7 ms·

> Nobody else in the industry seems to have had that insight back then Helps to have someone on Apple board, you know

jannes 7y ago
That's a good point. I had forgotten that Eric Schmidt was a director on the board of Apple between 2006 and 2009 while being the CEO of Google. Apparently they had Eric Schmidt step out of the room whenever they talked about Apple phones. https://www.cnet.com/news/i-resigned-from-apple-board-for-the-right-reasons-says-googles-eric-schmidt/ https://www.cnet.com/news/i-resigned-from-apple-board-for-th...
- mehrdada 7y ago
  Perhaps years later he stepped out. Not at the beginning though I assume. iPhone announcement day was a lovefest between Steve and Eric.
addicted 7y ago
Google also had early access to the iPhone because it was one of the few (the only?) non Apple companies to release Ana app on the iPhone on day 1 (Maps was powered by and created by Google initially if I remember correctly).
- jannes 7y ago
  There was a native YouTube app on day 1 as well (The one with the old TV icon). However, I believe it was developed by Apple.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 7y ago
    I really miss that app. Youtube. No ads. It was great.
  - agloeregrets 7y ago
    Not only that, it was Pre-Google YouTube.
    - jsjohnst 7y ago
      Google bought YouTube in November 2006[1], months before Apple announced the iPhone. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
  - jsjohnst 7y ago
    It was built entirely by Apple.
- leoc 7y ago
  Which probably all helps to explain why SJ was so stung by Android and willing to start lobbing patent suits around.
- simonh 7y ago
  The first iteration of the Google Maps app was actually written by Apple engineers, and just used Google APIs to access their mapping data. Google took over development later when the iPhone dev kits became available to third parties.
  - Izkata 7y ago
    That sounds off. I had Google Maps on my Samsung flip-phone somewhere around 2007 - can't remember if it was before or after the iPhone's release though.
    - neurostimulant 7y ago
      That's probably a j2me version of google map: http://www.boostapps.com/apps/google-maps-2-3-2-signed-touchscreen-version/ http://www.boostapps.com/apps/google-maps-2-3-2-signed-touch...
    - simonh 7y ago
      Those are just other clients to the Google Maps service, and some of those clients might have predated the iPhone. It just happens that the client on early iPhones was written by Apple, but clients on other platforms may have been developed by Google. The impressive thing about the client on iPhone wasn't the maps themselves as such, other phones had maps, it was the ease and fluidity of navigation using multi-touch gestures, and the simple integration with system services such as location services. Bear in mind phones back then didn't have pre-emptive multitasking.
      - sliken 7y ago
        Nokia n770 "an internet tablet", had maemo mapper which used the Google Map data. It worked well, the main problem is that n770 had no WAN chip. You could preload map tiles though. This was before the iphone, and years before google maps would work offline.
  - jsjohnst 7y ago
    > Google took over development later when the iPhone dev kits became available to third parties. Google didn’t take over the stock Maps until after 2010/2011 when Google and Apple had a big falling out. Apple wanted to keep pushing the app experience further, but Google wanted to own the app (and associated data collection) and so wouldn’t license more to Apple. This was exactly the reason Apple did their own maps and was forced to release too early. Apple couldn’t renegotiate the contract and their hand was forced. Same thing applied for the built in stocks and weather apps. Yahoo provided the APIs, but Apple entirely owned the app experience and wrote all the code.
agloeregrets 7y ago
And if you can’t have someone on Apple’s board, it helps to have the inventor of the iPod. (Palm’s WebOS)

That's a good point. I had forgotten that Eric Schmidt was a director on the board of Apple between 2006 and 2009 while being the CEO of Google. Apparently they had Eric Schmidt step out of the room whenever they talked about Apple phones. https://www.cnet.com/news/i-resigned-from-apple-board-for-the-right-reasons-says-googles-eric-schmidt/ https://www.cnet.com/news/i-resigned-from-apple-board-for-th...

mehrdada 7y ago
Perhaps years later he stepped out. Not at the beginning though I assume. iPhone announcement day was a lovefest between Steve and Eric.

addicted 7y ago

Google also had early access to the iPhone because it was one of the few (the only?) non Apple companies to release Ana app on the iPhone on day 1 (Maps was powered by and created by Google initially if I remember correctly).

jannes 7y ago
There was a native YouTube app on day 1 as well (The one with the old TV icon). However, I believe it was developed by Apple.
- 2muchcoffeeman 7y ago
  I really miss that app. Youtube. No ads. It was great.
- agloeregrets 7y ago
  Not only that, it was Pre-Google YouTube.
  - jsjohnst 7y ago
    Google bought YouTube in November 2006[1], months before Apple announced the iPhone. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
- jsjohnst 7y ago
  It was built entirely by Apple.
leoc 7y ago
Which probably all helps to explain why SJ was so stung by Android and willing to start lobbing patent suits around.
simonh 7y ago
The first iteration of the Google Maps app was actually written by Apple engineers, and just used Google APIs to access their mapping data. Google took over development later when the iPhone dev kits became available to third parties.
- Izkata 7y ago
  That sounds off. I had Google Maps on my Samsung flip-phone somewhere around 2007 - can't remember if it was before or after the iPhone's release though.
  - neurostimulant 7y ago
    That's probably a j2me version of google map: http://www.boostapps.com/apps/google-maps-2-3-2-signed-touchscreen-version/ http://www.boostapps.com/apps/google-maps-2-3-2-signed-touch...
  - simonh 7y ago
    Those are just other clients to the Google Maps service, and some of those clients might have predated the iPhone. It just happens that the client on early iPhones was written by Apple, but clients on other platforms may have been developed by Google. The impressive thing about the client on iPhone wasn't the maps themselves as such, other phones had maps, it was the ease and fluidity of navigation using multi-touch gestures, and the simple integration with system services such as location services. Bear in mind phones back then didn't have pre-emptive multitasking.
    - sliken 7y ago
      Nokia n770 "an internet tablet", had maemo mapper which used the Google Map data. It worked well, the main problem is that n770 had no WAN chip. You could preload map tiles though. This was before the iphone, and years before google maps would work offline.
- jsjohnst 7y ago
  > Google took over development later when the iPhone dev kits became available to third parties. Google didn’t take over the stock Maps until after 2010/2011 when Google and Apple had a big falling out. Apple wanted to keep pushing the app experience further, but Google wanted to own the app (and associated data collection) and so wouldn’t license more to Apple. This was exactly the reason Apple did their own maps and was forced to release too early. Apple couldn’t renegotiate the contract and their hand was forced. Same thing applied for the built in stocks and weather apps. Yahoo provided the APIs, but Apple entirely owned the app experience and wrote all the code.

agloeregrets 7y ago

And if you can’t have someone on Apple’s board, it helps to have the inventor of the iPod. (Palm’s WebOS)