Is it Apple that not letting it into the App Store? I thought that this was just speculation? The reason maps changed was, as I understood it, not just due to Apple, as google wouldn't give access to 'the good data' - vector based maps.
Exactly. This is really Apple's loss at this point. As more stories like these accumulate, there will be a good number of users who will think twice before jumping in and buying an Apple device.
Getting stuck in a bad part of a city, getting lost on some unpaved road at night in a national park, is many people's nightmare. At this point many don't even carry paper maps or if they did they probably couldn't use it effectively.
I've started carrying around my Nexus 7 in addition to my iphone just because of maps.
If iOS maps isn't seriously fixed by the time my contract is out, there's no way I'd by another iphone.