Eric Schmidt: Google Would Love For Apple To Use Its Maps

Eric Schmidt today, in an interview at the AllThingsD mobile conference, stated that he would love for Apple to re-adopt Google’s native app as its own default Maps program in iOS.

It’s no real surprise to hear a Google chief talking about how much he’d like his company’s product being used on the most popular smartphone, but there’s very little mention as to why Apple removed Google in the first place, or if the two companies are speaking about using Google again.

This silence is intriguing to the conspiracy theorist within in me. But there’s always a chance that he’s not said anything, because there’s nothing else to say on the matter.

“We would still really like them to use our maps,” Schmidt said. “It would be easy for them to take the app in the store and put it as their basic one.”

iOS Maps has been a major talking point ever since the iPhone 5 launched last fall. The service – although great in a lot of areas – was imperfect. And we all know that when something isn’t working right for Apple, people get ten times more animated and opinionated on the matter compared to any other.

The truth is, everyone expects great things from Cupertino, and when it doesn’t deliver, it gets a lot of attention. Maps in iOS 6 had bad satellite images, wrong locations and in some extreme cases ended up leading people in to the middle of an Australian desert.

It got so bad that Tim Cook had to apologize publicly, and even dedicated a page on the App Store to other alternatives that didn’t have the potential to lead people to almost certain death in the outback.

Then, to everyone’s relief, Google launched a native app on the App Store, complete with navigation and Street View. It didn’t take long for Google Maps to cement its place in the top apps chart, as millions downloaded it.

As you can see, desire for Google’s program is clearly there. Whether there’s enough to convince Apple to ditch its latest product is another matter entirely.