Allegedly, “Apple is widely expected to drop Google as the maps provider for the iPhone and the iPad.” Part of you, as an Android enthusiast, may be thinking “Who cares? Apple can do whatever the heck it wants, I can still use Google Maps on my phone.” You’re right, except that Google doesn’t really make it’s money from Android, it makes it from apps and the advertising revenue that they bring in. If Google Maps is no longer the default map provider on the iPhone and its million upon millions of users, that could be bad business for Google. And bad business for Google is obviously bad business for Android.
The trouble for Google is that all of its tech advances may be for naught if it is cut off from iPhone users. If Apple does drop Google as the default maps app, the search company might need to build its own separate maps app for the iPhone. And even if Apple allows Google's app in its App Store, the company will still have a hard time getting users to choose its program over Apple's native system.
- Tampa Bay Times
The good news, however, while seemingly small, is a step in the right direction for Googerola and the incessant patent litigation that it is fighting with Apple. Yesterday, June 7, a federal judge cancelled indefinitely one of the many lawsuits Apple has brought on its competitors (Motorola Mobility in this case) for lack of compelling evidence.
He said neither Apple nor Motorola Mobility had enough admissible evidence of damages to withstand dismissal. Posner also said to grant injunctions against infringements "would impose costs disproportionate to the harm to the patentee and the benefit of the alleged infringement to the alleged infringer and would be contrary to the public interest."
- Reuters
No, the Patent Wars are not over, but this is a good sign that a US Federal Judge is claiming that neither side is losing enough revenue to necessitate an injunction that would halt sales and deprive consumers of the products that they may or may not want to buy.
With this flurry of good and bad news, the question at hand is, where is Android’s future? If Google is going to have to up the ante on Google Maps because it could, hypothetically, lose millions of potential revenue streams, what would that look like? Can we expect more of an ad presence in Maps to make up for the loss of iPhone users? I sure hope not. Maybe Google will be forced to make Maps dominantly better that whatever Apple is offering so that users will still flock to the Google alternative?
With a small light at the end of the dark tunnel that is the ongoing patent infringement lawsuits going on right now, could hope spring Google into making Android something we haven’t seen before?
If the web top capability rumors are true, I think it’s safe to say that Jelly Bean could be a game-changer in how we use our mobile devices.
Where do you think the future of Android lies? Is it in innovative software like Jelly Bean (and Key Lime Pie)? Or is hardware where Android is going with the alleged revamp of the Nexus program? Hit up the comments with your thoughts.
