Apple iOS 6 users who have been missing their beloved Google Maps may be getting exactly what they want in a couple of months. According to the Verge, Google is working on an iOS Google Maps app, which they hope to finish by the end of this year.
Apple iPhone users who have either upgraded to iOS 6 or have the new iPhone 5 have complained of the inaccuracy-filled Apple maps app that is available to them. The company has been ridiculed since the release of the app for its various technical mistakes. The app, which provided turn-by-turn navigation, has inaccurate maps and addresses.
The company’s decision to launch it’s own mapping app caught Google by surprise, the Verge reported. According to two sources familiar with the matter, Apple made the decision to abandon Google Maps, which had been part of the iPhone since 2007, well over a year before the companies’ contract ended.
Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, cast some doubts on the development of the app for the new iOS device earlier this week.
According to Reuters, Schmidt spoke to reporters in Tokyo and said, “We think it would have been better if they had kept ours. But what do I know? What were we going to do, force them not to change their mind? It’s their call.”
“We have not done anything yet,” Schmidt added about the possibility that his company was working on an iOS app. However, reports from sources state that the company is in fact working on an app, but that it may take several months.
Apple, in the meantime, has been forced to deal with the barrage of complaints from customers. The Verge reported that Apple originally marketed the map system as “beautiful” and “gorgeous,” but that it has recently changed its rhetoric. Last week, the company said that the “new map service is a major initiative and we are just getting started with it,” the Verge reported.
The company also stated that it was “continuously improving” the system and that “the more people use it, the better it will get.”
Schmidt only had this to say to reporters, “I’m not doing any predictions. We want them to be our partner. We welcome that. I’m not going to speculate at all what they’re going to do. They can answer that question as they see fit.”