Apple's recent introduction of its own "maps" app didn't go as well as Apple, or its users, would have preferred. The reasons why Apple wanted to control its own app are clear enough, though.
Most people use map apps (about 89 percent of respondents to a Yankee Group survey say they have done so).
More important, though, are the potential advertising implications. Mobile ads associated with maps or locations are estimated to account for about 25 percent of the roughly $2.5 billion spent on mobile ads in 2012, according to Optus Research, up from 10 percent in 2010.
That is expected to grow as the number of location-aware software apps grows. But more than ad revenue, Apple is going after the map market to have more control over a key asset in the widening smartphone war.
Maps are related to "location," and location is the key to the value of mobile advertising and promotion.
Google Maps is used by more than 90 percent of U.S. iPhone users. So engagement is an issue as well.
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