Apples Maps just are not very available globally. It is heavily U.S. oriented, while the Google seems to offer similar features everywhere. Maybe some day Apple catches a bit.

Also, not everyone has and Apple device, so it's not really a competitor.

Apple Maps is also working well for me in Delhi NCR, India. Apple seems to have partnered with local mapping company called MapMyIndia. The traffic information and navigations are also quite useable and the ETAs also seem accurate.

I always check both Apple and Google Maps, but use Apple maps on my iphone because its way more battery efficient.

Is Apple Maps cross platform or only exclusive to Apple devices?

It has a well hidden web version. The easiest way to access the web version is via duckduckgo - just do a search for anything and click the map tab. the actual map tiles and data all come from apples servers.

Only Apple devices

Per the other comment here, Duckduckgo uses Apple data.

https://venturebeat.com/business/duckduckgo-ducks-google-to-...

Oh, that's neat. It doesn't seem to have turn-by-turn navigation though. The most it can do is list the steps on the website.