But that has been around for an age as well - it just wasn't available via an API.
Bing came out with 3D buildings after Google did and the coverage was a small fraction of that Google had and hasn't increased very much in the intervening years.
(I hope apps will offer both as data sources and maybe select the one with the best fidelity for a given region)
Early: Google does primitive tech (Google Earth)
Later: Microsoft does amazing implementation (Flight Simulator / Bing)
Finally: Google tries to copy but fails (Google Maps)