> 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 constan

> 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...