Requiring iPhone users to look directly at handsets for directions and manually move through each step — while Android users enjoyed native voice-guided instructions — put Apple at a clear disadvantage in the mobile space. And having chosen Google as its original mapping partner, the iPhone maker was now in a position where an archrival was calling the shots on functionality important to the iOS maps feature set.
And this caused Apple — which typically enjoys very tight control over its products — no end of philosophical discomfort, sources say. Apple pushed Google hard to provide the data it needed to bring voice-guided navigation to iOS. But according to people familiar with Google’s thinking, the search giant, which had invested massive sums in creating that data and views it as a key feature of Android, wasn’t willing to simply hand it over to a competing platform.
And if there were terms under which it might have agreed to do so, Apple wasn’t offering them.
I read that as saying Google knew voice-turn-by-turn was a huge advantage, and was not going to act as a 'partner' with Apple and let them have it for reasonable terms.
The fact that Apple couldn't come to a mutually satisfactory agreement with Google says nothing about whether either side actually made a reasonable attempt to negotiate a fair deal. And I can't see how it would have been to Googles advantage to offer a 'fair deal'. Do you ?
Which is pragmatically the same as withholding it in order to keep a market advantage.