Google chief Eric Schmidt at the first D9 interview on Tuesday night shot down rumors of Apple ending their map deal. Describing the interrelationships between Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google as the “gang of four” growing the fastest in the tech industry, he revealed that Google had “just renewed” its map partnership with Apple. He would have been surprised if Apple decided to jump ship just after making a deal.
“We have a partnership with Apple, and we compete with them,” Schmidt said. “We have a very, very good maps partnership and [a] search partnership.”
The D9 cast down near-term rumors of Apple trying to develop a completely self-contained mapping system following its acquisitions of Placebase and Poly9. While it didn’t rule out the prospects, the discussion suggested Apple’s moves were to improve the interface around Google’s maps rather than change the maps themselves
