I've seen people use it, and I've heard good things about it. Never seen anyone use bing maps, or say anything good about it.

Having said that, I agree: there's no way in hell Apple Maps could ever become a universal map.

I think Bing's maps are the best for looking at multiple countries in a region, since it seems to better at choosing which detail to drop or keep, and it does a better job stitching photography so that the imagery isn't as obviously from different days or years. The "bird's eye" view is also good for getting an overview of a town you are visiting. I've never used it for directions, but I don't know it's bad for that purpose either.

Bing maps sometimes has better satelite views than google, so that's something. (I think its actually aerial photos rather than satellites for some areas.)

I was not aware there was a bing maps. (not a troll, just a random data point).

I agree that apple's effort in developing maps has to scale over a smaller user base than google's efforts, which doesn't encourage the same level of investment. Plus apple doesn't appear to be able/willing to monetize their user's usage the way Google can/does which also increases google's incentive to do a good job.

Honestly, I really like and use many Apple products but I don't really understand their long term play.