Apple Maps confirmed junk.

This man knows what he's talking about.

Plus, the problem isn't going to be solved easily with money. Apple just doesn't have the talent in the right areas to exceed in this area like Google does. Their only option is to try to steal away talent from Google, but:

1. It will be costly and reduce morale when existing employees realize they are getting paid much less than employees working on the maps product.
2. Will still take a long time to accumulate critical mass of engineering talent to even start to begin doing what Google has done over the past 8 years.
3. A lot of Google's top engineering talent has philosophical reasons why they would never work for Apple (and money, to them, is usually not as big of a deal) or Facebook (for that matter).

Acquisitions won't work either, as a lot of the smaller companies are just "C" type players (http://blog.telemapics.com/?p=399).

i heard on CNBC this morning that Google is under pressure to get a IOS native maps app for iphone. Why would they do this? because they know that they can't get apple fanbois over to android anyways? I would think they should just let them flounder and look like ass for a while no?

Google already has a working iOS6 mapping app submitted to the app store. Apple hasn't approved it yet.

Google loves this because either they get their app out there or they get amazing press + possible antitrust suit.

Apple has peaked. They will continue making money for years to come but it's no longer worth buying them for the growth potential.

sharpie will you go into the antitrust suit?

Because Google doesn't make money from people buying Android phones over iPhones, it makes money from people using Google Maps over Bing Maps, Nokia Maps or Apple Maps. From what I understand (I haven't used an iPhone in a while, so this is from memory), iOS Google Maps was a front-end written by Apple using Google data, but without Google advertising. This costs Google money. Google's conditions for data access going forward (not sure if it would apply to current data or addtional features like turn-by-turn and streetview) probably included some combination of monetary compensation (either direct or through Google ads), access to user location data or even Google assuming more control over the UI development. A standalone Google Maps app created by Google would meet all those conditions. Apple, on the other hand, couldn't have Google Maps be a default part of the user experience in iOS while letting Google show advertising and dictate features, etc. Relegation of the fully-featured Google Maps to an app may be a reasonable compromise for the time being.

I think Google and Apple both know that this iOS Maps fiasco won't affect the smartphone battle too much in the short term and Google has no special love for Android manufacturers - Samsung and HTC, from Google's perspective, are simply foot soldiers used to keep Apple in line. Google's happy if it has unfettered access to iPhone users to provide its services. Google refusing to release an iOS map simply helps Microsoft, Nokia and a bunch of Android manufacturers, while hurting Apple, Google and iPhone users.

PB good explanation thanks.

I thought Goog made a bunch of money from HTC , sam, Moto by selling them Android OS.

Because the longer you force people to use Apple's Map service, the more you force them to get used to it.

Meanwhile, users input data and improve Apple Maps.

Not ideal outcome.

Just don't give Apple a chance to sell their Maps at all.

The iphone 5 is sold out.

Roughly (I'm not a lawyer) if you use a monopoly in an area to exert a market force that could only be done if you have a monopoly in the area, in order to attempt to extend your monopoly to another area, you have committed an antitrust violation. It's a lot more complicated that and defining "monopoly" and "could only be done if you have a monopoly" is difficult, as is proof.

just wanted to mention that i've changed jobs from professional apple owner to professional google owner

Apple not properly anodizing the aluminum.

How did this get past QC?

Apple will pop again on iPad mini announcement in early October. Not yet a long-term believer but think this is a short-term buying opportunity.

Can you elaborate on this or show me a link? Thanks.

Huh - I don't really know much on this topic, but I'm sort of surprised the market hasn't priced this in yet? I thought iPad mini announcement was all but confirmed (hence market would at least begin pricing in these sales)?

you guys that are short . what is your exit strategy ? im considering adding more in the 660's

this iOS6 **** is full on aids.

Details?

seems like you're paying up for google if you bought it recently

I know a lot of engineers who work at Google, and this is what they tell me. Again, referring to only the top tier engineers at Google (senior staff levels and above), which basically is like the top 0.01% talent in the world. Plenty of lower level engineers happily leave Google for Facebook or Apple.

Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but generally, the best software engineers embrace open cultures (which both Apple and Facebook are not) and want to solve challenging problems which both Apple and Facebook don't really do. Apple is much more of a UI/UX company (they don't even own their own Maps backend, they just own the front end and their iCloud platform is hosted on Microsoft's Azure), and Facebook is Facebook ... in the end of the day its just a social network with far fewer interesting (and not as big) "big data" problems than Google has.

Thanks for the reply.

doesn't matter when i bought it, i still love it now.

but for the record, i first bought GOOG at 295.90 and have added to the position several times since.

Maps is awful.
Broke my gf's 4s's wifi.
Gf bitching about battery life.
PoS isn't working right with Exchange (in other words, gmail)

Worst of all, I can't find a way to downgrade the damn thing back to 5.11. Not without relying on something like redsnow anyway.

I was actually going to buy the iPhone 5 as soon as it's jailbroken. I am not too sure about that plan anymore.

Brag: I was smart enough to not upgrade my own ipad and phone.
Beat: girlfriend's an idiot and clicked upgrade as soon as prompted to.

I have been on the appl train for a while and now feel kind of bad that I stopped out 1/5 of my position at the 50dma...what are ppl thoughts near term on AAPL