#FF00AA

iOS 6 makes it pretty obvious, I think, that Apple has wanted to have turn-by-turn directions on the iPhone for a while, but couldn’t as long as they were using Google. And I would be surprised if Google hadn’t been asking for more and more money — or more and more ad impressions — with each iOS release. (Remember that Reddit post about Maps giving sponsored directions to another fast-food place than what the user asked for, even though it was twice as far? That’s definitely not Apple’s idea.)

I don’t think iOS 6 is Apple getting rid of Google out of pettiness; I’m certain they switched to a new data source in order to offer more functionality, and at the cost of removing less important functionality that TomTom can’t provide. (Turn-by-turn is much more important to the iPhone than transit maps — transit info will be available in free or cheap third-party apps, but turn-by-turn was an expensive App Store purchase and as a third-party app it couldn’t be integrated with Siri. Voice-operated turn-by-turn, included with the phone, is going to be a huge factor for many people hesitating between iPhone and Android.)