I guess I'm just failing to see what Google has to gain, and I feel that they have more to lose.
Right now they have gained a key competitive advantage in the minds of consumers. Even iPhone fanboys will have a hard time arguing that Google does not have a better maps app.
What will they have to gain by proving the App store anticompetitive? Google will not make any sort of money from the app anyways.
By releasing a Maps app for iPhone, Google will basically giving away for free what Apple had been (likely) paying them for before. How does that make sense?
Nobody knows if apple is paying them and it all seems like it was free for Apple (but would have been renegotiated in 2013). Google makes money from users using google maps, not by apple paying google to use google maps.
Right now they have gained a key competitive advantage in the minds of consumers. Even iPhone fanboys will have a hard time arguing that Google does not have a better maps app.
What will they have to gain by proving the App store anticompetitive? Google will not make any sort of money from the app anyways.
By releasing a Maps app for iPhone, Google will basically giving away for free what Apple had been (likely) paying them for before. How does that make sense?