The reason they didn't want a new deal with Google is because Google refused to include turn-by-turn voice navigation. Google wanted to keep it unique to their maps app in Android, which is understandable, and so Apple opted to go their own way, as they saw this as a basic feature that they needed to include to be competitive.
What's really unfortunate about the whole thing, is that people forget what a mess Google Maps was when it was first launched. Of course, back then, Internet maps were just a cute novelty that the mainstream didn't really care about, so Google was afforded all the time in the world to do something with it.
I understand and accept the business decisions on both sides, but I just wish Apple would have built their new app and simply licensed Google's backend map data for it. I imagine the negotiations over a new deal got pretty ugly though, so I guess it just is what it is.
I remember when Google Maps was launched. It was really cool and unique (for nerds like me, anyway), and everyone I knew (fellow nerds) was happily running around and checking data, submitting corrections, etc etc. Nowadays, though, it's just not like that. Once something goes mainstream, the days of "growing the experience" are long gone. Instead of people happily running around helping Apple gather accurate mapping data, they're angrily switching over to the web-based Google Maps "until Apple's maps stop sucking." Of course, they'll never stop sucking unless people actually use them and submit corrections, but who's going to do hard work like that these days? Much easier to just use something else...
I don't imagine Apple will get a lot of sympathy though, and nor do I think they should. They've made business decisions in the past (which I have backed) that were just like the one Google made (to not provide turn-by-turn), so I can't start jumping around over this. Besides, my healthy respect for business logic would never allow it.
