Replace your frenemy with a recently-acquired startup? There's a map division at Apple for that...
It's no secret that relations between Apple and Google have been somewhat rocky lately, particularly with the recent row over the latter's Google Voice app for iPhone, where the two companies flatly contradicted one another in submissions to an FCC enquiry into whether it had been rejected or not.
Could the next step be for Apple to drop Google Maps as its official mapping provider for the iPhone? That's this week's speculation, following news that Apple bought a rival mapping firm called Placebase earlier this year.
Originally revealed in a tweet in July by one of Placebase's customers, the acquisition has now been confirmed by Computerworld, which discovered this week that Placebase founder and CEO Jaron Waldman is now working for the “Geo Team” at Apple, as is CTO Moran Ben-David.
Placebase's technology includes map data, but also the ability to layer data sets on top of those maps – crime data, demographics and so on.
The obvious conclusion in the blogosphere is that Apple plans to dump Google Maps in favour of its own proprietary maps based on Placebase's technology – in much the same way that its original iTunes desktop software was built on the bones of an acquired audio player called SoundJam MP.
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However, maybe that conclusion is too obvious. Google Maps is closely tied into the iPhone, not least because Apple opened its API to developers as part of its iPhone 3.0 update earlier this year.
The Placebase acquisition may be about other related services, using Waldman and Ben-David's expertise as much as their tech.
Either way, though, it seems mapping and location are set to play an even more high-profile role in iPhone in the near future, driven by Apple itself as well as external developers.
