Typical Xenophobic (Is it possible to be Xenophobic to America?) answer.
Apple is a US based company. They are going to most likely work on the US (where probably most of their customers are) first most likely.
Besides, I can name companies that have given their home country better things that us Americans haven't gotten/won't be getting/are waiting to get. A few car brands and quad-core phones come to mind....
I do agree that Apple being a US-based company, it can't simply take in to account the whole world when it comes to releasing stuff (I live in Japan and I'm not complaining that the iPhone doesn't have Infrared data transfer or built-in Payment chips, those are for Asian companies to make).
However when it comes to a cloud-based map application, Apple's way of doing all their development in one place and avoiding localization by keeping it under veils from even their own overseas locations is just not smart.
Creating a map app needs to be an international effort seeing that the needs of each country, each locality is quite different. As a Tokyoite, turn-by-turn driving directions are pretty much useless and I wish I could turn off the car icon when placing a pin. Instead, what I DO need are train station exit numbers and block numbers to conform the Japanese addressing scheme.
I'm sure other regions have their own standards and needs.
It doesn't matter how many genius developers they hire in the US, they won't be able to pull this off.
It's time to hand over the rein to each locality. That's how Google Map got to where it is now.