One bad experience can change the perception.
Interesting snub at Google by recommending Bing maps over Google :)
That may have just been because they want to emphasize a native mobile app rather than HTML5-based mobile experiences, and Google has not yet released their own native maps app for iOS.
Are you sure about that? Doesn't google have a maps application that is pending approval in the app store?
No, it's still being built and is probably months away[1]
[1]: http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3407614/apple-over-a-year-...
Actually, the open letter also recommends Google and Nokia maps, via their websites (because native apps don't exist).
BTW: Am I the only one that thinks it's fishy that Google's claiming (a) they only had 3 months notice of this change and (b) 3 months isn't enough to produce their own iOS maps app? I don't believe either of those claims.
Or even 0.1% bad.
I recently had a family member (who doesn't use a smartphone) call me up to ask if I could recommend a brand of print map to her. After just one instance of getting lost due to a mislabeled road in her atlas, she was ready to jump ship on a brand that she had probably been loyal to for decades. All over an error that was probably insignificant in the grand scheme of things. But to her it meant an hour's worth of lost time, confusion and wasted gasoline, and it was very significant.