Google has no plans to create Maps app for iPhone 5

TOKYO —

Google Inc has made no move to provide Google Maps for the iPhone 5 after Apple Inc dropped the application in favor of a home-grown but controversial alternative, Apple launched its own mapping service earlier this month when it began providing the highly anticipated update to its mobile software platform iOS 6 and started selling the iPhone 5.

But users have complained that Apple’s new map service, based on Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker TomTom NV’s data, contains glaring geographical errors and lacks features that made Google Maps so popular.

Google and Apple were in constant communication at all kinds of levels. But any decision whether Google Maps would be accepted as an application in the Apple App Store would have to be made by Apple.

Google and Apple were close partners with the original iPhone in 2007 and its inclusion of YouTube and Google Maps. But the ties between the two have been strained by the rise of Google’s Android mobile operating system, now the world’s leading platform for smartphones.

Google provides Android free of charge and allows developers to add applications on an open basis, betting that by cultivating a bigger pool of users  now at over 500 million globally  it can make more money by providing search functions and selling advertising.

The feature allows users to shift their view of an area by moving the device in the air without touching the screen, similar to the effect of looking around.