Apple Hiring App Devs for iOS Maps - Apple Nav Coming?

[Darren]

Apple has always lacked a built-in navigation application. Unlike Android which bundles Google's Maps Navigation app on its handsets, Apple has always relied on third part navigation apps from TomTom, Navigon, CoPilot and others.

But an advert on Apple's corporate site suggests they may be looking to redress this issue. Apple are advertising for an iOS Maps Application Developer and whilst some rumours are fanciful, it doesn't seem to big a leap to wonder if this is the first indication that Apple have plans for maps of their own.

A number of sites have posted news over the weekend that iOS5, the next iteration of the Apple operating system, will not appear until Autumn, eschewing the usual summer launch and the various rumours doing the rounds hint at more location awareness and cloud based services being a major feature.

Apple's $1 billion data centre in North Carolina is due to open shortly and this has added weight to the rumours of a move into cloud based services such as music streaming. Perhaps there will be room for a few servers dedicated to map delivery as well?


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Darren Griffin

[dorsetwurzel]

I saw a rumour that this was going to happen back in the days of iOS 3 but nothing ever came of it.

Maybe now google have improved their free nav app with the inclusion of traffic data this has spurred Apple on.

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