Update (September 12th):Eric Schmidt went on record saying:“We haven’t done anything yet with Google Maps,” Schmidt told reporters in Tokyo today. Apple would “have to approve it. It’s their choice,” Schmidt said, declining to say if the Mountain View, California-based company submitted an application to Apple for sale through its App Store.

If you are missing Google Maps after updating to iOS 6 over the past 24 hours, good news may be just around the corner. As previously rumored, The Guardian suggested this afternoon that the folks at Google built a separate Maps app for iOS 6. The report further added that it will “appear in time,” to which well-known developer Steve Stroughton-Smith seemingly confirmed with a “Yep.”

[tweet http://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/248875894943387649]

Separately, we’ve heard Google has been building versions of a iOS GoogleMaps.app for quite a while. Additionally, we’ve learned an updated iOS 6 version of the Google Maps.app has been submitted to Apple. It is awaiting approval, however, and that could take some time. It took a year for Apple to approve Google Voice, for instance, and Apple could technically likewise claim Google Maps “duplicates a native service” even though there are quite a few mapping apps already in the App Store (like Google Earth). Last month, it looked as if Apple were putting an update to Google Voice that featured Siri-like functionality through purgatory.

Update: Jim Dalrymple says “nope”. While this is clearly from Apple, it is a matter of semantics. Google has the app ready and Apple has seen it.  It isn’t any different than the below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-cZ4mdrlWYM]

Over the past 24 hours, Apple’s Maps application has received a ton of negative feed back from the press and some users. Sure, Apple’s Maps has great functionality like turn-by-turn navigation, Siri integration, and more, but many have found Apple Maps to be sub-par  without key mapping data (that Google  once brought to iOS). The Guardian claimed the folks at Google are enjoying the bad press thrown at Apple:

Google, I hear from roundabout sources, is enjoying the bad press Apple is suffering. It would be surprising if its mappers could resist some schadenfreude, since they are very proud of their work; having it rejected wholesale must be galling.

TechCrunch says that Google hopes to have the app approved in the next few months:

A Google Exec told Bloomberg that all iOS users would have to do is “download Google Maps”

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  • Missing all the features of Google Maps? Get them back in iOS 6 with these third-party apps (9to5mac.com)
  • Google Exec comments on iOS 6 Maps [Video] (9to5google.com)
  • Google Exec comments on iOS 6 Maps [Video] (9to5mac.com)
  • Poll: Are you worried that iOS 6 Maps ‘update’ won’t have important data that Google’s maps did? (9to5mac.com)