Google to Show Off 'Next Dimension' of Maps on June 6

djrod said:

Standalone Maps app for iOS :wink:

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So here is my question. If there could be a standalone Google Maps app for iOS, why is Apple paying those fees to Google to use their maps in iOS?

And if there will be a standalone Google Maps app, how would google make money from that? Would it be a simple version (since they want to promote Android).

gotluck said:

um? Apple is the 'me too' when it comes to maps.

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I wonder when MapQuest will put on a big announcement this year.

chrmjenkins said:

I don't think it's an issue of being accused of copying this close together.

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Come on, you've been reading MacRumors for a while. You know if they announced like 2 hours later, it would have been "They copied Apple!" non-stop, even though it would have been humanly impossible.

mbarriault said:

The timing is way too suspicious for this to have been independently scheduled.

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No kidding. Between the timing and the text on the invite you can easily read into it that they are announcing their new state of the art, never done before, 3D mapping service. which will release later this year (well after Apple's if they are in fact doing said service)

dBeats said:

Google charges Apple for each Map query. Maybe Apple should make you pay for each query through your iTunes account. I wonder what you would think of it then?

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Google charges apple for use of their services which users do not pay for because google spent millions of dollars developing those services.

iTunes is software used for purchasing music, which you pay for, which they make money off .

Missing out? Maps app has been half-assed by Apple for 5 years now.. iOS users have already been missing out on full Google maps capabilities.

dBeats said:

Read the invitation. Notice words like "Vision" "Sneak Peak". Dead giveaways...
Also, might I remind you of when Google announced "Android @Home" in 2010. How's that working out for them?

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MapsGL. It's already there, just in preview. This is a probably a public showing of it.

http://support.google.com/maps/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1630790

...and the Google obsession with what Apple is doing continues. A special event for Google Maps, just as a certain other fruity company is set to unveil their new mapping application 5 days later?

Coincidence?...i think not

rnizlek said:

I hope so. Unless Apple maps replicate Google's transit routing functionality, I'll be sticking with Google for a long time.

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If you mean the functionality that is on the iPhone and iPad I hope they don't. Because it sucks. At least here in LA. Their driving directions take you blocks out of the way half the time, are just wrong another third. The walking directions are a joke and the bus line info is way out of date and sometimes also flat wrong.

So rather than replicate I hope that Apple has done it way way better.

I bet this will be pretty amazing. So will Google's next drive all over the world sucking down people's private information.

Apple's maps won't be easy to beat...

Take a look at C3 & Poly9, Apple's purchases for their mapping technology. They use data collected by aircraft to get their map data. It digitizes land, buildings and even trees. It will have high definition views.
http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/3d-maps.png
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CNemPTHOKWg

I doubt Google can one-up this technology.

It would be really cool if Google Earth and Google maps could show (near-) realtime weather conditions, with moving clouds and stuff. Not impossible, I think, technically.

daneoni said:

...and the Google obsession with Apple is doing continues. A special event for Google Maps, just as a certain other fruity company is set to unveil their new mapping application 5 days later?

Coincidence?...i think not

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When did Apple actually say they were introducing a maps solution though ? Google's obsession with Apple ? Google have been doing maps for years...

Seriously people, you're not even trying to not show your subjective bias.

hmmm

"next dimension" obviously meaning 3D
and the timing obviously meaning apples dropping it.

Tarzanman said:

I can't blame Apple. They aren't a software company.

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I think you meant to say that they aren't a hardware company.

They are in fact a software company. That is what they make and they sell it in part by selecting, from others hardware, what combination of components said software can be run on which they have assembled and sell themselves. Allowing them to decide what hardware they support to make it easier to build the software and so on.

charlituna said:

I think you meant to say that they aren't a hardware company.

They are in fact a software company.

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Apple is neither. They're a systems company. They sell you a system, be it an iPad, iPhone or Mac. The system is both hardware and software. That's where their money comes. Not from hardware, not from software, from systems.

engg2000 said:

Take a look at C3 & Poly9, Apple's purchases for their mapping technology. They use data collected by aircraft to get their map data. It digitizes land, buildings and even trees. It will have high definition views.
http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/3d-maps.png
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CNemPTHOKWg

I doubt Google can one-up this technology.

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Sure they can. They can just copy it and just repackage it as their own like so many other things.

SGMD1 said:

Well this is embarrassing for Apple.

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How? Because google is announcing first? Isn't the first time and Apple suffered no issues on the other occasions

Because Google's will be better? We have to see both in action first.

If anything this is embarrassing for Google because this announcement came after the rumors about Apple's new mapping service so it makes Google look desperate and trying to come in 'first' even if in fact they have been planning this for a while down to even the announcement date.

milbournosphere said:

I'm sorry but Apple's map offerings are pathetic.

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How do you know.... it isn't even released yet?

Will google maps be available in next iOS version as an app or something else?
I don't think google will ever take cydia route (like VLC).

eekcat said:

If I'm trying to get to a friend's house, I have no interest in getting routed to a dental office several miles away.

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That they have screw ups like that and it is basically impossible to correct them is what soured me on their system. Several streets by my house are one way and they don't mark that and they have routes telling folks to go the wrong way. I noticed it and tried to find a way to submit feedback about this and it was impossible to find anything.

One shoot that I was working on I looked up the directions they gave to the site we were filming at and it was totally wrong. I had to email and text everyone to tell them NOT to use Google Maps or it would send them to the wrong part of town. Not just a couple of blocks off but literally 20 miles away from where they should be. And yes I verified the address 4 times both in my notes and with what I was putting in the search and I had the right zip code, right city name, right street down to it being South XXX and it was Ave not Street etc. The really amusing part is that we were filming in an old shut down single screen theatre and Street View had the right photo for the building, just in totally the wrong place

what if this new google maps is what apple is introducing in iOS 6.Makes sense tha
at after google previews it on june 6 ,5 days later Apple can say that ios6 will ship with next generation of google maps.As for the mapping companies that apple has bought maybe their own app is not ready yet.

KnightWRX said:

Good timing by Google. If Apple does annouce something at WWDC, at least now no one will say Google scrambled and "copied" Apple in less than a week. I guess we dodged that bullet.

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Can't really say that. After all, this announcement was announced after the rumors started and for all we know they are going to say "later this year" which at least implies that they don't have a finished product and perhaps not even a started one.

Now if they announce they are releasing it the day after and its a fully formed product, then they dodge that bullet.

Pretty safe to say that Google knows Apple is going to make a big deal out of maps on June 11th, so they're rushing to show off their next gen maps before Apple steals the spotlight.

I'm even more excited for WWDC Now. This means Google does have an almost ready to go next generation of maps...and Apple chose to do their own instead, which means Apple chose the better of the two options, 1) New Google, or 2) Apple Maps.

newdeal said:

Apples current google maps app is just fine. What they really need is turn by turn navigation powered by siri. Googles turn by turn is pretty darn good

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How ironic that people are complaining about not having Tom Tom built-in and thus cannibalizing 3rd party developers, yet if and when Apple does that people will come unglued that Apple is screwing over 3rd party devs.