Google needs Android, to make sure Maps and other Google products are on phones and tablets. If Android didn't exist, and Apple stopped using Google products - and Microsoft use Bing - then Google would be in trouble.

What do you think if worth more to Google? Being on every platform or only having their own platform? Why do you think Android is so popular now? Or how Microsoft was able to ride the IBM clones to dominance? You guys think too small.

Being on every platform is better than just their own. But being on no platform is even worse.

Without Android, Google may have ended up on no platform.

I think the reason why you are annoyed with my comment is perhaps you think I'm saying Google shouldn't release maps for iOS? I think they should, and will. I'm just disagreeing with you when you say that Android isn't that important.

I wouldn't say annoyed, most disappointed. Google have never thought of Android as anything other than another avenue to peddle their services. They're on record stating as such, it's not the other way round. Google were making Maps for BlackBerry and I'm sure other services will follow. In fact, I'd be mighty surprised that should WP8 get a decent market share, you won't see the full GApps package for that. You can't run your products as a shared entity that epitomises the business. You run your products independently with the best interests of the business at heart. Going back to the Samsung example, the exact reason why Samsung can owe Apple a billion and yet still be making them chips.

As a side note - have you noticed that articles about Maps keep disappearing off the front page? I think they are being removed by the mods.

Not surprised really. The front page is being flooded with rehashes of the same story.

Good to see the mods are being effective and efficient. How many more "lol, maps!" articles do you need to see?

No. You clearly underestimate the importance of Android.

More and more people are exclusively using their mobile for the internet which will explode once smartphones take hold in India/Africa/China.

Given that Nokia/Microsoft doesn't use any Google products and it's questionable how long Google Search will exist on the iPhone they NEED Android. Desperately.

Do you think Google is close to eradicating the iPhone? Do you think Google is close to eradicating the iPad or even the iPod? Google Maps is one department and Google Android a total other. Whether Android is a success or dies tomorrow, Maps will still be around and driving ad sales. In case you forgot, Google is an advertising company, not an Operating System company.

That doesn't address the central part of taligent's comment. Yes, Google is an advertising company but they fear a future where their products (and therefore their adverts) are frozen out of smartphones. If Android didn't exist and the iPhone was the only game in town then perhaps that is exactly what would have just happened to Google Maps.

Frozen out by who? Being one of the most popular apps in the app store is far more valuable to Google than being preloaded on devices. Why? Because it enables word of mouth and discoverability.

If Android didn't exist, Google maps would be an external app on Blackberry as it is and other OSs.