It would be interesting to know how much decisions at Google had to play in all this happening. I'm sure they knew how much value they added to Apple's platfor

It would be interesting to know how much decisions at Google had to play in all this happening. I'm sure they knew how much value they added to Apple's platform, and with the continued rise of Android it's certainly possible they saw this as an opportunity to have yet another reason for customers to leave iOS and come to Android. The iPhone 5 and iOS 6 are merely evolutions of what came before them, and there are very few reasons for people to upgrade. Apple runs a real risk of losing customers over this (i.e., people keep their perfectly good iDevice and buy an Android/WP device to try them out). Maybe this is the proverbial kick in the pants that Apple needs to make sure the next iPhone and iOS version are more baked coming out the door.