Rating: Let’s hope this is more accurate than iPhone 5 rumours
There’s strong speculation over the announcements which Apple is expected to make later today [June 11th 2012]. It is particularly suspected that it will provide news on the release of the next version of the Apple OS – iOS 6. The most popular of these conjectures is that Apple will replace Google Maps with its own offering. For those fanboys who want to sit and listen to Apple’s execs wittering on, here’s a few hot tips from Analysys Mason‘ s principal analyst, Ronan de Renesse, on what to watch out for.Firstly he says that iOS 6′s key focus will be to bring Apple’s customers closer than ever by gaining better hold of, and providing better consumer experience in, the most popular app categories: – maps and social networks.
de Renesse argues that Google Maps could lose up to a third of its mobile user base in the West if Apple launches a alternative map service.
According a recent study (in partnership with Arbitron Mobile), iOS users contributed to 28 per cent of Google Maps users in France, Germany, Spain, UK and the US.
Moreover, three out of four iOS people had used Google Maps at least once over two months. Indeed, de Renesse believes that location information and mapping are at forefront of application innovation.
“By offering its own map service, Apple will not only gain control over one of the most popular application on its devices but it will also offer developers better more integrated location-based tools for iOS,” de Renesse claims.
