Yeah, it could be better.

I have to say, it is a continual breath of fresh air whenever I go into YouTube.app these days. My favorites are pulled right from my YouTube account, my subscriptions are readily available, my posted videos are there. It was painful, for so long, to go into YouTube.app, only to be greeted with a glorified search engine. Having true integration with the web service is just where it’s at.

So now, with the advent of the Google/Verizon Droid, it’s going to slowly become apparent that other web services need some lovin’ on iPhone. The first example that comes to mind is Maps.app.

For roughly the entire time iPhone has been on the market, I can recall being frustrated that users are unable to create multi-stop directions. Thankfully, it’s possible to create multi-stop directions on the desktop, and email them to iPhone. The link will open up in Maps.app, and all the stops will be plotted. But you can’t change the route, since iPhone only does A -> B directions.

But, getting back to the point, Google Maps is your Google Maps. You’ve got an account that you can personalize, it keeps a history of your searches, and there’s the My Maps feature which allows you to save custom maps for later use. The Droid reportedly handles this with aplomb (as one would expect), and your saved maps are automatically available in Android. This is what these services are meant for, and it’s silly to under-utilize them.

Now, this is where Apple has often infuriated me in the past. Because when I really stop to think about it, I don’t know that — were I in their shoes — I would do anything differently. Maps.app was quite nice in the beginning, but it quickly felt a bit simplistic. Knowing now that Apple was very invested in getting third-party developers into the AppStore, one thing has become increasingly clear: sure, Apple needed to ship solid, reliable apps on the phone, but it was debatably better for them to leave people wanting. And once you’ve given your third-party developers a chance to shine, you’re somewhat backed into a corner — if Apple make their stuff far better than the products on the AppStore, many developers are going to get all butt-hurt about it.

The bottom line, though, is that you can’t delete Maps.app from your iPhone. You’re not given the choice. So, even if you were to find a much better mapping app on AppStore, you’re doomed to have two icons. By the same token, since Maps.app is destined to be a crutch, that gives app developers ample reason not to excel. You don’t have any incentive to develop a complete/excellent replacement for Maps.app, because you can’t ever truly replace it.