The story is a little bit more complex than that and Skyhook don't come out of it as well as it appears in your quote. I'm afraid I don't have any sources for you immediately as it was a while ago.
1. Skyhook didn't just want their stuff preinstalled, they wanted Google Maps taken out.
2. Google felt that the way Skyhook reported their location data (mixing WiFi/cell tower calculations and GPS data, IIRC) would have polluted their location database if they had tried to use it (the way they use the data gathered via Google Maps). Since getting that data is one of their few direct, tangible benefits from releasing Google Apps on an Android phone, it isn't terribly surprising that they'd be protective of it.
That's not true at all. Our contract just stated that Skyhook was the sole location provider for all apps. There was no restriction on whether they could ship Google Maps. The contract also said Motorola couldn't send our location data back to Google which they would use to build a competitive system on our back.
