Google Maps is out for iPhone and iPod touch. This has, apparently, surprised a bunch of people, including those in the tech press. I’m not sure why. Yes, ‘sources’ had said Google Maps might struggle for approval, but then ‘sources’ say a whole bunch of crap. In fact, ‘sources’ often don’t exist, and are instead ‘journo making shit up and pretending otherwise’.

Of course, Eric Schmidt also fanned the flames a little in an interview, stating of Apple:

They haven’t approved all of our apps in the past.

But that lacked any context whatsoever, not mentioning why some Google apps didn’t make the cut. (Some were due to Google not adhering to Apple rules, and some were due to Apple rules being stupid, some of which have since been relaxed.) Instead, it would have made more sense for people to have looked at Tim Cook’s apology on Apple Maps, where he said:

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

That didn’t sound like a company about to reject a Google Maps app, and YouTube’s arrival on the App Store should have further removed people’s doubts, in terms of Apple not spiking apps built by its biggest rival. But then ‘Google Maps will show up on iOS when it’s ready’ isn’t as link-baity as ‘EVIL APPLE MIGHT NOT APPROVE GOOGLE MAPS BECAUSE TIM COOK HATES YOUR FACE AND WANTS YOU TO DIE IN THE DESERT’.

As for the app itself, I’ve been playing around with it today, and it’s quite nice. It’s fast and efficient, has far superior UK road colouring to Apple’s solution, and it actually knows where the most important Luton is. That said, some of the UI decisions are baffling, with Street View being weirdly ‘hidden’. (You must tap-hold a location to load it, then pull that up from the bottom of the screen. It’s a lot like discoverability in many touch apps for Windows 8—i.e. almost entirely missing.)