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Thursday 21 June 2012

Google Maps Is About To Get Even More Awesome

Next week, Apple is widely expected to drop Google as the maps provider for the iPhone and iPad. Google has provided Apple’s mobile mapping system since the release of the first iPhone, but the companies aren’t friends anymore. Over the last few years, Apple has purchased three mapping startups, and it has reportedly been combining their technology into a maps application that, in the words of one Apple insider who spoke to All Things D, “will blow your head off.”

Is Google worried that Apple’s defection will substantially reduce its user base, and, consequently, the advertising revenue it gains through maps? Does the search company fear that it could lose its place as the online mapping leader, a position that has long been one of its competitive advantages? Is it concerned that Apple might build a better, more useful maps app?

On Wednesday, Google invited tech journalists to an event in San Francisco that was meant to show that it is not concerned at all, no way, no how. Several executives took the stage to explain the technical feats that Google performs to build its maps. They also unveiled a few upcoming features, including a system that creates beautiful 3-D images of all the buildings in the world’s major metropolises, as well as a way to access Google Maps when you’re not online. The Googlers were all very cordial and friendly, and when baited by journalists into commenting on Apple’s plans they declined to take any shots at their rival. Yet in everything they said, and in the very fact that they’d scheduled this event just days before Apple’s announcement, the company’s message to would-be mappers was obvious: You want to take us on? Seriously? Do you know who we are? Bring it.

It was a convincing message. But the fact that Google scheduled this event in the first place is the best indication that it’s very worried about losing its primo iPhone placement. We have no idea how well Apple’s maps app will work, but it seems extremely unlikely that it will be able to top Google’s deep mapping expertise. Even so, losing its spot on the iPhone home screen will be bad news for Google, and it’s a move that will be difficult for the search company to overcome.


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