Amazon expected to reject Google Maps for upcoming tablet

For its rumored upcoming Kindle Fire refresh, expected next week, Amazon will add maps functionality but it won't go with Google's popular offering, sources told Reuters' Alistair Barr. Unlike Apple, who earlier this year ditched Google Maps, which it has up until now used in all of its iOSes, Amazon isn't building its own competitor, instead going with a Nokia Oyj creation. We don't get many details about what special doo-dads the maps will have. (Probably something 3D, since that seems to be the rage with competitors Google and Apple.) But, this new addition will add location based capabilities to the tablet, say Reuters' sources, so we will get all that fun stuff that comes with satellites knowing our whereabouts. (Also all the creepy things about it, too.) 

As these companies become ever more competitive they don't want to pay each other for services. That's why Apple up and designed its own maps situation. And since the Kindle Fire with its $200 price tag is a direct competitor with Google's $200 Nexus 7, it makes sense that Amazon wouldn't want to support its enemy, especially when that nemesis got better reviews for its tablet. Plus, as we've seen with the Samsung-Apple trial, when enemies make nice in exchange for services things can get ugly when they decide to sue each other later. Samsung provides Apple with some its parts, while the two are embroiled in a major cat fight. (Just today, by the way, Apple lost to Samsung in Japan, so now they owe them money. The war wages on!) 

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