OK, so who wants to take some bets on Apple's next move?
They're getting utterly slated in the press, technology blogs and enthusiast sites (Mac Rumours withstanding, the ****s) and not a peep from the Cupertino mob as yet.
- Promises for improvements in the Maps app (well, the data within)?
- Backtrack and allow the prodigal mapping son to return to iOS?
- Nothing, sit there and be arrogant?
On the flip side, will Google release an iOS version of Google Maps? Will they let people fester? Will this be a line in the sand and a start of some serious inter-company warring?
Or, will the Jailbreak community bring iOS 5.1.1's Google Maps to iOS6?
I think the most important thing Apple could do here is take a Google style view of crowd sourced improvement where end users contribute and fix the awful data contained within. Whilst that's going on they need to spend some hardcore money investing in decent street level satellite imagery and start getting everything mapped properly.
However I reckon Apple will sit on this for ages, and then release a one liner saying "we're working on improvements" then slowly usher in some changes. They won't admit fault in a major way on a flagship feature for their new iOS version I'd wager.