> Apple is grabbing up all they can, but they're in competition with a lot of other companies with sizable war chests.

Why not start a price war for developers? Presumably Apple has plenty of funds to start offering developers, say, double what they're offering now. If developer skill and/or quality is really a primary concern for Apple, what is stopping them from simply offering more compensation? (Obviously, I'm not suggesting that this would be a quick fix to their maps project.)