The search giant's Eric Schmidt has suggested that Google has no Maps app in store for the iPhone 5 and that continuing with Google Maps would have been the right decision for Apple.

"Maps" Android App

Could iPhone 5 users' week get any worse? First there was the Apple Maps fiasco, then the discovery that many users were finding their handsets in less than pristine condition, and now Google has said that it has no short-term plans to provide a Google Maps app for Apple's latest handset.

Speaking to Reuters at an event in Tokyo to launch its Nexus 7 tablet in Japan, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt noted that the company hadn't done anything in regards to submitting a separate Google Maps application for eventual inclusion in Apple's App Store. He said, "We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know? What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It's their call."

Though public reaction to Apple's own mapping system has been less than positive, most tech experts agree that if Apple wanted to reduce its reliance on Google and offer its users a genuine alternative to Google Maps, it had no choice but to launch something sooner rather than later.

In February 2005, when Google Maps went live, it was less than perfect, but it has grown in terms of features and accuracy to what it is today thanks in no small part to input and corrections by billions of users over the last seven years.

Apple understands that it has a lot of ground to cover, quickly, if it wants to offer its ever-growing band of users a genuine alternative and, with its recent spate of recruiting ex-Google Maps personnel, it appears to be moving in the right direction. Whether or not it will be quick enough to stem the tide of disappointment being vocalized on social media sites and technology blocks is another question.