The company abandoned Google Maps and began closer cooperation with Facebook

The confrontation between irreconcilable competitors in the mobile advertising and smartphone market - Apple and Google - has sharply escalated. Apple announced that it will stop using Google Maps in new versions of mobile devices in favor of its own mapping service. In addition, Apple could undermine Google's position in social networking. Apple's new version of iOS 6 will include full Facebook integration rather than Google+.

As part of the 23rd annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which opened yesterday in San Francisco, the premiere of a new version of iOS 6 for iPod, iPhone and iPad devices took place. One of the most notable changes was Apple's long-awaited release of its own mapping service, Apple Maps. As a result, the corporation will completely abandon the use of the Google Maps service on its devices, which the company first publicly spoke about early last week . The new application allows you to receive information familiar to such programs: traffic situation in real time; GPS navigation with turn directions; route planning; image of the area in 3D mode. Apple's main partner in this project is the Dutch supplier of devices for automotive and personal GPS navigation, TomTom. Apple emphasized that its cards will also be able to interact with the Siri voice assistant. Moreover, leading automakers - Jaguar, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes - will join in the development of this option. As part of a joint agreement with Apple, they will build a special button for calling Siri into the car's steering wheel.

It is worth noting that along with Apple’s refusal to use Google Maps, the cherished dream of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who wanted to destroy competitors who, in his opinion, stole many ideas from Apple, may come true. As it became known from his biography, released posthumously, Steve Jobs was ready to go to “thermonuclear war” to defeat his rival. Experts are already predicting that Apple’s decision will entail a significant reduction in revenue for Google Inc., whose main source of income is related to mobile advertising, including on maps. In 2011, the owner of the search engine earned $2.5 billion from mobile advertising. Moreover, according to Oracle, from 2008 to 2011, 80% of Google's revenue came from iOS devices and only 20% from Android devices.

Meanwhile, Apple intends to undermine Google's position in the field of social networks. The corporation announced the full integration of Facebook into the sixth version of iOS. Users can receive voice status updates on Facebook and like movies and apps in iTunes. In addition, all events from the network chronicle and birthday reminders will be automatically entered into the calendar when connected to the network.

The sixth version of iOS will appear in devices in the fall.

Elizaveta Kuznetsova

Apple sent Google into isolation