[afniljl]

if Google Maps becomes too difficult or terrible to use, and there's a better competitor, users will naturally switch to the alternative. Unless you guys can start something better, you'll just have to use Google Maps? I don't think Apple Maps or any other service has a good enough data or feature set right now or forseeable future, outside of the California or US geographic area.

Either Google Maps raise it's developer API pricing to support all their investment into the service, and I'm sure it's not cheap to support, especially with their streetview efforts, or else ads go into the consumer side. For a long time we enjoyed the free ride from Google Search's desktop revenue.

[Yizahi]

Sygic, Tomtom, iGo, Garmin (HW) are very solid maps with good coverage in Europe and nearby countries. They have big POI databases, more or less good search, usually good UI (and optimized for driving). They primarily lack traffic (e.g. Sygic has maybe 1% of what Google has for traffic info), social info (reviews, pictures etc.) and maybe some general polishing. But if people will decide to switch then these particular features can be added and covered. But no way people will turn from ad infested spyware to pay for apps. 20$ vs 0$ - the answer is clear.