Apple Gets Ready For Google Divorce?

The fight between Apple and Google is going to get nasty. Apple had its problems with Google Voice and Google Latitude. But now it’s targeting Google Maps as well. The Android platform has certainly raised eyebrows at Apple, so it’s no wonder the company is now targeting anything and everything Google is offering on iPhone. We all wished things were different. Google Maps Navigation is certainly one of the best maps/GPS apps around and is offered to Android phone owners for free. But don’t count on it making it to iPhone anytime soon. Not when Google intends to make Android the dominant player in the mobile OS market. Whether you consider Google to be aggressive or fair with its strategies, Apple has felt threatened and its drive to control everything has kicked up again.

Apple is already in the process of testing iPhone 4.0 in the San Francisco area. The phone is expected to come with a more innovative design, better camera, and many other features. It seems it will also come with Apple’s very own map software. Apple is already looking for an engineer to take its map software to the next level:

We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things. We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We’ve only just started.

Apple investing in its own map platform means only one thing. Forget about trying Google map products on iPhone anytime soon. Google will always have the opportunity to offer those services through the web, but those apps won’t be making it to iTunes.

Google is certainly not being passive with its overall strategy to dominate yet another market. Google Android is a nice step forward for the company, but according to reliable sources, Google is already planning to introduce its very own phone to take its game to the next level. Gizmodo is running a very intriguing story on all this. Apparently, not only Google phone will be killer, the Android that some of us have come to like may not be the real thing. Sensationalist? Maybe. But very possible.

Google is a very smart company. It knows that it can’t compete with app store and the iPhone with its current offerings. So I wouldn’t put it past Google to be working on making Android a killer platform, capable of holding its own against iPhone OS. Could that be the reason Apple is so threatened by Google? Or maybe it’s Google’s drive to dominate the world. Either way, this cat and mouse game is worth watching.