Why Is Google Latitude A Web App And Not A Native App? Because Apple Said So.
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? Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
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