Eric Schmidt: Google has not submitted Maps app for iOS

Schmidt gives everyone a reality check: Google Maps and Apple are over

So let’s talk about Apple’s Maps app.  The masses are not pleased.  The many (many) complaints cite major geographical errors, lack of information on public transportation, searches turning up information for different cities altogether, and lame flyover imagery.  Apple took a big gamble swapping out the sleek, highly efficient Google Maps app for its own embryonic alternative, and now everyone’s asking when they’ll be able to download the Google Maps app.  Some are trying to keep the mood light by poking fun at the crappy Maps app (see above picture--a photo taken at a London train station).

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has broken the bad news: Google isn’t going out of its way to get back together with Apple.

Reuters reported Tuesday morning that Schmidt spoke with a group of reporters in Tokyo to give them a glimpse of the Nexus 7 in action, and while he was there, he touched on the sad case of iOS 6 Maps and whether Google has submitted its own Maps app to the App Store yet.

“We have not done anything yet,” he revealed—which counters earlier rumors that Google had already submitted its app for consideration and was expecting Google Maps to be back on the iPhone later this year.

"We think it would have been better if they had kept ours.  But what do I know?" he added.  "What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It's their call."

To rub a little salt in the wound, Schmidt apparently gave reporters a glimpse of a new feature being added to Google Maps that allows the user to look around within the map by simply angling and turning the device like a camera—no screen touching required.  Damn, Google…you lookin’ hot from over here.

Schmidt didn’t rule out the possibility that Google Maps might make its way back to the iPhone some time in the future.  He claimed that Google and Apple “talk every day.”

Last week, Apple released a statement in an effort to appease its disgruntled users.  “We launched this new map service knowing that it is a major initiative and we are just getting started with it. We are continuously improving it, and as Maps is a crowd-based solution, the more people use it, the better it will get,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Miller told AllThingsD.

Once upon a time, Apple and Google worked together on the iPhone, which originally came with a lot of Google integration—specifically where Maps, search, and YouTube were concerned.  But now that Android has become the top operating system in the U.S., the competition has put the two at odds.  Schmidt expressed his hope that Google can still be Apple’s default search option for the iPhone.

Image source: pocket-lint.com