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I don't think Google cares what platform you're accessing their services from. As long as they get your data, they're happy.

• ajanuary 14y ago
  And how they push logging in/signing up for an account only increases that.
• netcan 14y ago
  I'm sure the android part cares about how many people buy android and how cool it is compared to iOS. Apple use their apps as a competitive advantage and Google aren't. Itunes supported Apple podcast & music players would help android. Obviously Google maps helps iOS. I guess what I'm asking is "Is this helping maps at the expense of Android?"
  • czr80 14y ago
    The answer is clearly yes - this largely removes one reason why someone might prefer Android over iOS. Hard to say how big the effect is, though.
    • netcan 14y ago
      Especially since Apple are clearly working to improve their own maps. If/when they hit (or near) parity, they'll have the massive advantage of being bundled. At least before, they were maintaining a long term position as the major maps app. If they lose 90% of these users when in a year or two when Apple improve their maps, it would just have been a wasted opportunity to sell androids, especially the high end ones.
      • snogglethorpe 14y ago
        > Especially since Apple are clearly working to improve their own maps. If/when they hit (or near) parity ... The thing is that Google is also working constantly to improve its maps, and has a far larger and more experienced team doing so than Apple. [Besides the underlying infrastructure which forms the bulk the effort, now that Google has its own app, they have a very definite incentive to keep improving it (whereas in the case of the iOS5 maps app, there were artificial constraints preventing it from being kept up-to-date).] There's no guarantee that Apple ever will hit parity; indeed, they may simply fall farther behind...
  • dannyr 14y ago
    You realize that 2-3 years ago, the IPhone was 10+ times better than Android yet people still bought Android phones?