We briefly pointed this out in our longer post on Google Latitude launching on the iPhone, but it’s worth pointing this out separately. In its post today, Google made an unusual admission about its service: It apparently built a native Latitude app for the iPhone, but Apple asked it to make it a web app, so Google did that instead.
Here’s their actual wording:
We worked closely with Apple to bring Latitude to the iPhone in a way Apple thought would be best for iPhone users. After we developed a Latitude application for the iPhone, Apple requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google to serve maps tiles.
Hmm. We all know that Apple and Google are pretty buddy-buddy, after all, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on Apple board (though it’s not clear for how long). But something about this sounds a bit odd. Apple dictating product decisions to Google, and Google listening. There has been talk of this in the past as well. And perhaps now we know why it took Google so long to get the service on what is the most popular smartphone out there right now.
This is also a bit odd because if Apple is so worried about a confusion between Latitude and Maps, why not just build Latitude into Maps? Maybe that’s coming down the road?
Possibly too deep an incursion into Apple’s own mobile sandbox? Not sure I can grok the decision entirely, but you have to think it’s a wise one, at least for the short term. Maybe Apple doesn’t know what it wants to do here yet and as a result is keeping Latitude at arm’s length.
Right on the money MG, Apple usually pulls stunts like this when they are planning to come out with something similar.
I don’t think so. Apple having plans to launch something similar maybe reading too much into the story. But Apple dictating and Google listening is weird. MG, thanks for the post.
Wal-Mart dictating Coca Cola is even more weird. Everyone listens to Apple. It’s their store. They can sell whatever they want.
Another “odd” point is that Google is espousing mobile stores dead and all apps should run in the browser vs native on the client but then Apple rejects their native on the client and tells them to make it a Web App?
“dictating product decisions” now that’s an overstatement. they rejected their app. Don’t know the exact reason, the apple store constitution is tl;dr.
It’s best they did it on the browser anyway. you can semi-multitask while reading other pages on safari.
btw, http://askaround.me/ also uses iphone’s geolocation
I don’t think there would have been much confusion. There are other mapping applications on the iPhone so people already have the choice.
Another option would have been to integrate it into the Google native app, but maybe Apple does have its own plans.
My colleague said, “Latitude is retarded for iPhone. What’s the point if it ain’t native?”
what would be the difference if it were native? iphone can’t multitask. at least on the browser you can switch back to other pages faster
Like I said in the earlier article. Latitude is worthless on the iPhone if it cannot run in the background.
Loopt is almost similar to Latitude. Apple has not problem with people confusing Maps with Loopt
Sufficiently buddy-buddy as to make me uncomfortable.
Nice to see you work out
Maybe this is a sign that in the future web apps will run in the background? Just like having a browser open in the background on your computer, the latitude website could update itself without you being in safari all the time, as long as you have it open in one of the tabs. This could be one way of apple letting apps run in the background while giving them limited capabilities.
music can run on background when streamed via safari…but it seems GPS is a no-no
It could be that Apple is trying to get people to start building more web apps to take the load off the Application Approval Process and to increase the usage of Safari/Webkit.
Though this would also surprise me if it was the reason.
Still why not skip the approval process if you can, you can update your app as much as you want when it’s through safari.
Because Native Apps are an antiquated concept from the pre-Web 1990s
It’s interesting that they did a native application and then it had to be changed to web based. It almost seems that Apple was trying to waste Google’s time and money by dictating the change. Hopefully it’s not that way, but I don’t see the advantage.
Isn’t a web app more inline with Google’s mobile direction anyway? Just the other day they said there was no future in apps.
Web or native, sounds better than what we have for the Blackberry. Its just integrated into the regular Google Map app.
It’s kindof useless if it can’t operate in the background anyway. Although if it was a native app you could use backgrounder…
I prefer VentureBeat’s coverage (http://ventureb...thless-web-app/) because it addresses the consequences to users and to Google of Apple’s decision to refuse.
What I can’t understand is why Google bothered releasing it, much less talking about it, except possibly for political gain against Apple. If politics was the aim, it can be argued that Google lost this round for two reasons. Apple exerted their right to control Google’s actions on Apple’s platforms. Google also illustrated why websites and web applications are not a substitute for software.
“Google also illustrated why websites and web applications are not a substitute for software.”
It looks like you are confused. All this illustrates is a bug in the iphone OS: the inability to properly background tasks.
What’s really weird is that Apple seems to have rejected an app that Google had already written. You’d think with the kind of relationship Apple and Google have, they would have a dedicated account manager they can ping to ask them ahead of time if they’d allow a native app and find out that Apple is not cool with it _before_ Google go writing it.
Well, for sure the use of this latitude is going to take a while to get a hang of…
Poll: http://aclevert...ers-most-to-you
Reason # 10 on why i switched to android and left my iphone behind.
Ditto.
Umm integrate this into Gmail web for Safari mobile!
When I check my mail update my status and send me an email when X friend is X miles away from me.
A separate web app is silly!
Native apps are best reserved for games and thats about it. Look at history and you will see that native apps died in place of rich web apps.
I predict apple will start making more of the native functions of the iphone available through webkit.
Using web apps is miles better than turning your iphone into a brick full of crappy single use native apps. It’s already getting messy.
I call bull on the entire statement.
The word “Latitude” sounds nothing like the word “Maps”. Their icons look nothing alike. The interfaces look nothing alike.
There is literally NOTHING that could possibly cause confusion.
Something else is going on here.
although i agree with you that it just seems weird that apple is saying this, and although the words don’t soud alike doesn’t mean that their similar functions can’t be inferred by people. i mean latitude deals with navigation, maps…i haven’t seen the two to be able to compare them but maybe apple doesn’t want to have the customers confused…although if you can’t read and you can’t think rationally i don’t know why you would have an iphone cause they would drive you nuts with all it’s functions and apps.
Google and Apple, sitting in a tree
Neither is blushing.
What’s that they say about politics and bedfellows?
These bedfellows aren’t so strange.
Because of FIND MY PHONE in MobileMe!
Yes – I’ve said this before in another related story. Not only would they need to allow it to be background, but more importantly, with a native Latitude app, who would need to pay for the MobileMe for the “Find my iPhone” app?
I think Apple can hold them off only so long. I’m betting Apple has seen a huge spike in MobileMe subscriptions solely due to the FindmyiPhone option.
Google knows this and is just being magnanimous because they know it’s inevitable anyway that finding your iphone will be a free service.
Why is this strange???
Google’s Vic Gundotra has said that Web Apps are the future, not the native apps. SO what gives?
The thing nobody seems to be mentioning is that Latitude is a full featured Google Maps mobile website, with search, directions, traffic and all just like on the website (and Maps application). With one or two more exclusive features to the web version, I might just replace my use of the default Maps app.
Perhaps this decision more ties into Google’s vision per Vic Gundotra:
“We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that’s where Google is investing.”
@MG Siegler, whose iPhone is it on the screenshot ? Anyway, thanks for buying Moonlights ^_-
There’s no technical reason Latitude location can’t also update on Google search page and search result loads. (after making sure it’s done in a way that doesn’t slow down search functionality).
The confusion is not too great. Because of the policy (of money) Apple and Google will pull each under a blanket. But most of all, is against this background that in the near future we will see all the advantages of this application on iPhone.
All that is done – done better.
Looks like my next phone won’t run Mac OS X then.. Apple stiffles innovation. Too bad, I like the platform, but in a year Android will have matured sufficiently (look at HTC Sense, and imagine it with Android 2.0, and quicker hardware).
I’ve got mobile me and the find me feature is the only thing I find useful.
Seems like Google Lats running background on iPhone kind of negates the need for half of the find me service. If only someone could write another app that would make the phone ring after receiving a push message.
In Apple’s defense I’m not sure people are ready to be tracked all the time. Do you really want to have to explain why you do or don’t have your personal tracking feature on?
Apparently it was Apple who earlier said Google Maps should be native App; from Steve Jobs conversation with Bill Gates at http://d5.allth...obs-transcript/
Steve: I’ll give you a concrete example. I love Google Maps, use it on my computer, you know, in a browser. But when we were doing the iPhone, we thought, wouldn’t it be great to have maps on the iPhone? And so we called up Google and they’d done a few client apps in Java on some phones and they had an API that we worked with them a little on. And we ended up writing a client app for those APIs. They would provide the back-end service. And the app we were able to write, since we’re pretty reasonable at writing apps, blows away any Google Maps client. Just blows it away. Same set of data coming off the server, but the experience you have using it is unbelievable. It’s way better than the computer. And just in a completely different league than what they’d put on phones before.
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If they are really able to write apps that ‘blew Google Client Away’, then only reasons could be either 1. they are NOT able to write an app that could blew away the Latitude; 2. Latutude could really be bad written; 3. Expect a surprise feature in due course from Apple
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you can use google latitude with facebook with the facebook app “Footprint History” http://apps.fac...ootprinthistory