Is Google Maps Ready for iOS 6? What to Look For in the New App
iOS 6 has more than 200 features that have changed the last iOS experience. Apple keeps on enhancing their products, embracing the philosophy of the late Steve Jobs: “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
However, Apple Maps has disappointed users who were forced to look for alternatives, including downloading third-party map apps such as Maps +, Waze and Bing for accurate locations.
Apple fell short due to technical limitations including incorrect positioning data, missing locations information and lack of features such as the street view in Google Maps.
The result is that users relying on Apple Maps are rapidly falling according to Snappli’s statistics. Meanwhile, Google spotted its opportunity, at Apple’s expense.
“Google is developing a maps application for iPhone and iPad that it is seeking to finish by the end of the year, according to people involved with the effort who declined to be named because of the nature of their work,” said Nick Wingfield and Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times.
“Publicly, Google has been cagey about whether it will provide Google Maps for iOS devices as an app, beyond saying that it wants to provide its maps to users on any device they use.”
Google Maps is almost ready for iOS 6. Ben Guild, a mobile developer, published leaked blurry images that show Google Maps on iPhone in alpha stage.
Google released the video below earlier this year that is rumored to be similar to the new iOS app.
Here’s more look for:
- It’s vector-based.
- It has two-finger rotation to any angle.
- It’s super fast.
- 4-inch height of the iPhone 5 is supported!
“Google would likely prefer to release a maps app that includes 3-D imagery so it is comparable to Apple’s,” said Wingfield and Miller.
If you are having a hard time using the Apple Maps, simply launch your mobile Safari browser and go to maps.google.com and add the link on your home page.