Is iOS getting a Google Maps app? Not yet, says Google

Apple may be drowning in the maps department, but don’t count on Google to throw the company a life jacket anytime soon.

“We have not done anything yet with Google Maps,” Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told reporters in Tokyo today when asked about the company’s iOS Maps plans.

Schmidt, like most iOS 6 users, is undoubtedly aware of the wildly negative reactions Apple has been getting for its new maps app. Drooping dams, underwater restaurants, and mislabeled locations are all common in Apple’s maps, which have had a rough coming-out party, to say the least.

But despite all its struggles, Apple isn’t keen on letting Google back into its iOS walled garden.

There are three ways to interpret Schmidt’s remarks: Either Google has sat on its hands for the last few months and not developed an iOS version of Google Maps, has created one and simply not submitted it to Apple, or is waiting for Apple to approve the app it has created.

Which do you think is the most likely?

Apple’s app approval process aside, Google’s probably experiencing a good deal of schadenfreude watching Apple struggle. After all, it was Apple, not Google, that severed the Google Maps relationship.

But Schmidt offers a more tempered, political view.

“We think it would have been better if they had kept [our maps]. But what do I know?” he said.

Photo: The Amazing iOS 6 Maps