This is competitive pressures at work, similarly to IBM and other's investment in Linux in the early 2000's as a way to place competitive pressure on MS/Windows.
If you're not the leader in the field, and won't be able to catch up just by investing, you try to make the leadership in the field (Google's) irrelevant.
If the 2nd-best-by-small-margin base map info is open, having the best one isn't a competitive advantage anymore.
If you're not the leader in the field, and won't be able to catch up just by investing, you try to make the leadership in the field (Google's) irrelevant.
If the 2nd-best-by-small-margin base map info is open, having the best one isn't a competitive advantage anymore.