Apple Now Own Google Maps Competitor Placebase
Back in July, Apple stealthily acquired Placebase, a mapping company that provides a service similar to Google Maps, but with more robust customizations and set of APIs, called Pushpin, for layering data sets over maps.
Google and Apple have been steadily moving from friends to frenemies of late, with the advent of Android and CloudOS, the whole Google Voice and Google Latitude rejection brouhaha, and Google’s CEO leaving Apple’s board. TiPb’s conjectured that Apple might see Google as trying to take over everyone else’s platform as well, so it makes a certain amount of sense (especially given their history with the Mac) to have in-house backups for all the services Google currently offers for the iPhone. A billion-dollar data center might factor into that as well…
Given that Apple wrote the iPhone Maps app themselves, and just used Google for the backend, a switch to Apple Maps might even be transparent to the end user. TiPb’s also discussed Apple’s philosophy that the interface is the app, which again shows why Apple might be hesitant to give UI over to Google through Google Voice or Latitude — they can’t swap that out as easily.
Regardless, it will be interesting to see what an Apple Maps might look like…
(via 9to5mac and Computerworld)
October 1st, 2009 at 7:50 am
This will definitely be a good thing for Apple. Why rely on Google? I’ve used PolicyMap, and it’s so much more versatile than what I can get with Google Maps. Hope we can see it’s API out soon.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:56 am
Fine with me… I’ve never used Google anything, other than iPhone’s Maps. G’bye Google Maps.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:19 am
I lost count….how many times did he say UMMMMMM ?
October 1st, 2009 at 8:33 am
I would hate to lose Street View.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:01 am
I can’t even find these maps to check them out, nor have I ever heard of them; how great can they be?
Personally, I prefer to use MS (now Bing) maps. Especially lately since 7 months after my new home became an official address it still does not show up on Google Maps, took 2 weeks to show up with MS.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:17 am
Wow now I understand why google maps was diffrent on my 3gs when I switched from the TILT
October 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am
At ezmack don’t be a fool, google is the back bone of that app. Say good buy to free, say good bye to street view, and say good bye to google transit. Remember google is king of Internet search and resources. Apple is king of hardware so tell who they will use as a free source? Yahoo, mapquest, bing? Exactly dam idiot
October 1st, 2009 at 9:55 am
Ugh…I hope they stick with google maps as their backend. Their map data is consistently most up-to-date (bing/ms is rapidly getting better, but irrelevant to iPhone), google’s traffic data is far better, and google’s location searches are orders of magnitude better than any other option. Removing google’s massive data harvesting capabilities from the maps app would be cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:07 am
Wow, Apple really is tying up many aspects of the computing world. In some ways, I think they are starting to get too big. I love their computers and the iPhone of course but think of how much they control! They are the world leader in PMP sales and music retail. They are rapidly gaining share in the personal computer space. They are rapidly owning the smartphone space. If the tablet rumors are to be believed, they will probably crush the Kindle with all of its flaws. Now they are trying to gobble up some of the web services that Google has dominated. It’s starting to get crazy.
October 1st, 2009 at 10:08 am
“Give over the UI” through voice or latitude? I must have missed the news where either google App takes over any system or native UI – they are separate, self-contained Apps that a user must explicitly choose to launch, and which, when launched, do so into their own Sandbox, just like every other App in the store. Apple’s excuses ring hollow here, as does tipb’s uncritical repetition of them.
October 1st, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Good Fudge google
October 1st, 2009 at 12:34 pm
While I am a strong believer in the inevitability of Apple/Google evolving into Frienemies in the months ahead (see: The Chess Masters: Apple versus Google – http://bit.ly/IHPmW), I think this is more a case of Apple adding geo-locative DNA to their bench and continuing their innovation around the Maps app, since as you note, while powered by Google Maps under the hood, Maps is nonetheless developed by Apple in terms of look, feel and supported workflows.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:24 pm
@Rudy:
You hit the nail right on the head.
Anyone who thinks Apple did anything significant when writing the iPhone Map App is nuts. All they did is provide data entry fields, call a few Google APIs and display the images returned.
Moving to their own map source will emasculate an already fairly limp wristed application.
When Google added traffic, Maps got it instantly. When you tap a pin, its google results.
Any effort Apple puts in to step away from Google is contrary to their Customer’s best interests and wishes.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:04 pm
@Dev: Google Voice is not integrated into the iPhone, it’s its own app with it’s own UI, and it’s easy to hit GV rather than Phone, and if people prefer it, in essence GV becomes the phone (at least for outgoing purposes).
Google obviously understands this, Apple obviously fears this. It’s brilliant on Google’s part, as they increasingly go from pipe to front-end, and while you can switch out pipes without anyone noticing, switching out front-ends is much more difficult.
If iPhone use becomes more about Google services than Apple software/hardware, Apple has a HUGE problem on their hands. Both companies know that as well…
October 1st, 2009 at 4:06 pm
@icebike: Apple still paints prettier pixels than Google, but that’s not a compelling differentiator compared to the services offered. People might like Apple’s Maps app better than how it looks on WinMo, for example, but they may need the services offered by it, even if that means Android is in their future. Same problem I’m referencing above…