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Mapping service grounds for new virtual turf war

By Wang Wei: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, June 8, 2012

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Google announced several major upgrades to Google Maps on Wednesday, featuring complete 3-D maps, offline maps for mobile and more indoor maps included in its Street View service. [File photo]

Google announced several major upgrades to Google Maps on Wednesday, featuring complete 3-D maps, offline maps for mobile and more indoor maps included in its Street View service.

The announcement came days ahead of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11, where Apple plans to release a new version of its mobile operating system, iOS6. The new iOS introduce a new in-house app as the platform's default mapping service.

The move is set to have a major impact on the user base of Google Maps, which has been the pre-installed mapping service on Apple's iPhone since its initial launch in 2007. Google Maps has provided the key GPS mapping service for iPhone users, while the popularity of iPhones bought in huge web traffic for Google.

Such a split between the two giants is due to the huge benefits underlying the mapping service, said Lu Junshang, secretary-general of the National 3D Innovative Design Competition and president of 3ddl.net.

Now, operators including China Mobile have begun to refocus their service from voice to data. Mobile maps bring huge data traffic and hence attract the attention from those operators and mapping service providers.

Location Based Service has been incorporated in a wide range of mobile applications. Users use it to locate banks, restaurants and gyms on their mobile maps, so this is also a great platform for advertisement.

Apple has reportedly planned to ditch Google Maps from its iPhone for several years. As the market share of smart phones with Google's Android system surpasses that of iPhone, Apple has stepped up its efforts to promote the plan. At present, Apple has purchased three mapping companies with cutting-edge mapping technologies.

Despite brewing battles between Google and Apple over mapping services, users in China may not be much affected as the mapping market is occupied by other competitors due to China's policy restrictions.

According to the latest statistics by Analysys International, China's mobile map app users have amounted to 172 million by the end of March 2012. Baidu, Sougou and Mapbar account for almost 90 percent of its market share.

Google Maps was actually at a disadvantage in the whole market, said analysts from Analysys International, since China's National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation has issued a regulation that Google Maps is not allowed to add new content to its present internet mapping service as of February 1, 2012.

Joining the fray could be other companies including Tencent and Sogou, which have become unsatisfied with their marginalized market shares. They now strive to promote products with novel features such as street views and localized services.