When the iPhone 5 sees its release date next year with the iOS 6 operating system installed, one of the iPhone’s few remaining ties to Google will be severed if Apple’s latest gambit comes to fruition in time. Apple has purchased a company called C3 Technologies (says Venture Beat) which makes, you guessed it, mapping software. That means you can say goodbye to the Google Maps embedded within the iPhone’s “Maps” app as soon as Apple can figure out how to build out its newly acquired mapping footprint to serve as a suitable replacement. iOS user views on the use of Google Maps in the Maps app have long varied: some like the familiarity, as it means the Maps app has a lot in common with the maps.google.com site where users tend to get their maps when on their Mac or PC. But others have tagged Google Maps as merely being the best of a weak bunch, beating out flailing competitors like Mapquest but not being in a position to brag about doing so. For Apple, however, relying on Google in any capacity has become a strategic weak link…

And that leaves iOS users in a position to benefit if Apple can get its maps act together in time for the release of iOS 6, which should correspond with the release date of the iPhone 5; Apple has long paired the new iPhone and new version of the operating system together on the calendar despite the OS also working on the iPod touch and iPad. Apple’s rule is that it generally won’t bring something in-house unless it thinks it can do a meaningfully better job. Although Apple could likely make nicer looking printers than what’s on the market, for instance, the company declines to go there because the improvements wouldn’t be of any substance. But make no mistake: Apple wants to rid itself of as much dependence on Google as possible. As was made clear when Apple fired former Google CEO Eric Schmidt from its board of directors and then proceeded to file patent lawsuits against nearly every Android hardware manufacturer, and spelled out even more explicitly in Steve Jobs’ posthumous biography, Apple feels the Android OS was a copycat job on the part of Google, ripping off the iPhone operating system…

Clearly Apple wants as little to do with Google as possible going forward. And yet Apple has shown that it won’t throw its users under a bus for the sake of pettiness. For instance, even as Apple incorporated the competing Bing search engine into the iPhone along with its Safari web browser for Mac and Windows, it left Google search as the default. Why? Because Google’s search engine is better than Bing’s. As such, when the iPhone 5 rolls around, users can expect Apple to only swap out the Google Maps engine in the iPhone’s Maps app for an in-house app if A) the in-house app is ready to go, and B) the in-house app is superior to the existing one. It should be pointed out that the iPhone’s Maps app has always been an Apple creation; it merely pulls Google Maps data for the actual mapping. Apple won’t need to write an in-house Maps app, as it’s already done that. All it needs to do is build out its own maps. Whether that means Apple vans driving the streets of the world in order to map out the globe remains to be seen.

On a larger note, now that it’s clear Apple no longer wants to be Google dependent in any way, one has to wonder whether Apple might be considering getting in on search as well. Many have concluded the Google has already won the search engine wars and there’s no going back, and have pointed to the mostly-failed Bing as evidence: if even Microsoft with all its resources can’t make a dent in Google’s search dominance, who can? But then again, outside of gaming, Microsoft hasn’t successfully moved into any new market in the past decade or more. If Apple is indeed out to weaken Google in the name of weakening Android, expanding into search might be the most effective strategy. In fact Apple already has an iAds framework for in-app ads which could be expanded into search engines. Whether Apple could succeed in the search engine realm is another matter.

But in the short(er) term, those with their eye on next year’s iPhone 5 may find that its Maps app looks a bit different. Just don’t expect Apple to light up its own in-house mapping technology in place of Google’s unless it’s ready for prime time. As much as Apple wants to take down Google, it doesn’t appear willing to take down its own users in the process.

Source - [ beatweek.com ]