I’m wondering if anyone has requested and actually received an API key for the Google Maps iOS SDK. I put in my own request over a month ago now, and still nothing despite having a shipping app that is ready to make immediate use of the new SDK (and which is picking up some negative feedback due to inaccuracies in Apple’s maps).
Has anyone been issued an API key for the Google iOS SDK, and if so, how long did you have to wait for it and what were the circumstances of your application (i.e. did you have an app already deployed, how popular was it, etc.)?
I’m hoping that if we can unravel the criteria Google uses to issue these keys we can allow people with pending requests to come up with an approximate estimate of when their request might be granted.
As I mentioned in this answer, I applied for access on the 13th of December, and then received an email saying I’d been approved on the 17th of December.
I have an app on the app store which used to use Google Maps, but I had to remove the maps when iOS 6 came out. Not sure if this had anything to do with it, or if I was just lucky because I happened to hear about the SDK almost immediately after Google announced the new SDK, and I applied for access right away.
When I received the email saying that I’d been approved, I was added to a google group – which is how Google sends out notifications of updates. From the looks of it that group only has 77 members, so if that’s equal to the number of people which have been given access, I guess Google are rolling out access quite slowly.
UPDATE:
As of the 21st of February, it looks like the SDK is now open to everyone.