One thing of note is that none of the new feature points in iOS6 Maps are supported by the public Google Maps APIs. For Google to not allow the general public a

One thing of note is that none of the new feature points in iOS6 Maps are supported by the public Google Maps APIs. For Google to not allow the general public access to that data may be very well be the same reason that keeps them from not offering the data to Apple, whatever reason that may be. But without that data, Apple's hands were tied to do anything new with the software. Starting new may have been the only way they saw to restore innovation to the application (or, at very least, catch up to the competition). Information accuracy aside, I find the new Maps app to be a vast improvement over the previous version. It is all just conjecture at this point, of course, but I find it hard to believe that Apple would walk away if all of the terms were favourable just because it is Google.