Apple ditched Skyhook and Google, rolled their own location database

TechCrunch went through the fine print and noticed that, with iOS 3.2 (iPhone 3.2 for iPad) Apple switched from using Skyhook and Google's location database to using their own, home spun, solution.

When reached for comment, Skyhook wouldn’t specifically talk about their relationship with Apple, but they did say that “everyone who has a platform wants to own as much of the location stack as possible. Location data is going the be huge and owning it is going to be the next big war in mobile.“

Indeed. Now roll Apple-acquired PlaceBase and Poly9 Map layer brain-trusts into the equation, and what will we get?

[TechCrunch]

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore, co-host of Iterate, Debug, ZEN and TECH, MacBreak Weekly. Cook, grappler, photon wrangler. Follow him on Twitter, App.net, Google+.

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There are 8 comments. Add yours.

jb says:

doesnt surprise me that they would test it with the iPad. Hopefully it works out well for them and we can say goodbye to google and hello to a more sophisticated mapping&location system.
iMaps: Coming Soon to an iOS device near you.

PeterM11 says:

So wait... they aren't using Google Maps at all in it?
Where are they getting the actual maps from?
I'm all for this but it make me wonder where it's coming from.
Apple branded turn-by-turn voice GPS app please?

jeff D says:

The only downside, of course, is that you will have to pay extra for it. I'll stick with my free turn-by-turn directions thank you very much.

Crawdaddy says:

Well all I know is my iPad WiFi works as well if not better than my iPhone with a dedicated GPS.

deksden says:

i m sure that Apple sould do something with InDoor navigation - its must have for mall, airport and other large public building navigation.

LCW says:

Well I hope Apple updates the Maps app on the iP4 soon, because the current is seriouly lacking compared to the latest Google Maps app for Android...

corntrollio says:

"Now roll Apple-acquired PlaceBase and Poly9 Map layer brain-trusts into the equation, and what will we get?"
Every location search resulting in directions to the nearest Apple Store. ; )

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