WSJ chronicles Apple move away from Google Maps and the growing rivalry between the companies

9to5 Staff | Jun 4 2012 - 9:19 pm PT

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vtdamKEcH8]

Most of you know what is coming in iOS 6 Maps. However, in a long post this evening, which unfortunately does not include much that we haven’t seen or heard, the Wall Street Journal chronicles the last five years that have saw Google and Apple going from best of corporate friends by sharing board members and agreeing to no-poach agreements to sworn enemies spending a great deal of time disparaging each other in and out of courts. The latest breakup in the relationship, and probably the biggest holdout, is Maps. Apple has used Google’s Maps since the launch of the iPhone in 2007 when Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt went on stage to introduce the new software (above).

Later this year, Apple is planning to oust Google Maps as the preloaded, default maps app from the iPhone and iPad and release a new mapping app that runs Apple’s own technology, according to current and former Apple employees. Apple could preview the new software, which will be part of its next mobile-operating system, as soon as next week at its annual developer conference in San Francisco, one person familiar with the plans says. Apple plans to encourage app developers to embed its maps inside their applications like social-networking and search services. Technology blog 9to5Mac earlier reported that Apple will launch its own maps app in its next mobile-operating system.

Apple purchased Placebase, C3 Technologies, and Poly9 over the past three years to ramp up its mapping capabilities faster. In a rare description of something we have not heard, a use case is explained for the new calendar-integrated mapping system:

Apple’s goal is to develop a “holistic” technology that integrates maps with other Apple software, says a person briefed on the strategy. For instance, if Apple’s iCalendar program knows that a person has a meeting across town soon, and traffic is backing up, it might alert the person about road conditions.

The article is full of interesting backstories. Almost all of which we have heard on background before, but never all in one place.