Looking things ex-post, Apple ignoring map development for last 5 years and then launching a crappy map app seems to be a big strategic miss. Location based services will be a big piece for smartphone monetization. Search remains the gateway for internet in PC and the same will work for mobile internet/data services. And local search is the key be it ecommerce which includes product/service etc.
Seems that Steve jobs missed this while thinking about what smartphone will be able to do when he thought about iphone otherwise Apple would have a better map solution like it has for media consumption like e-books, music etc, voice and utilities(App platform)..
