24/7 Wall St.

The owners of Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 5 are rejoicing. The awful map product made by Apple for its devices can now be replaced by the one from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), which is the benchmark for superiority in the industry.

The Apple debacle cost at least one senior executive at the company his job. Experts and reviewers greeted the decision by Apple to accept the Google product as a way to replace the single largest flaw in the new smartphone.

The BBC reports:

Apple is also seeking to improve its own data through user feedback, but risks having less to work with if iPhone users switch to another product.

There had been speculation Apple would reject Google’s app from its store for this reason.

But since iPhone sales are at the heart of Apple’s fortunes, it may have felt it had more to lose than gain by allowing rival Android handsets to offer a popular app it lacked.

Douglas A. McIntyre