Apple is planning to get rid of Google Maps on mobile devices "later this year" and replace the feature with its own in-house mapping application, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the Journal's sources, Apple may demo this new map app as soon as next week during its Worldwide Developers Conference.
Google Maps has come as a built-in feature on the iPhone since it launched in 2007, but in the next few months it will no longer be the default mapping application.
The Journal goes on to outline two big reasons why Apple really wants to kill Google maps (and why Google should be sweating the news):
- Mobile ads associated with maps and location data account for about a quarter of all mobile ad revenue. That's money Apple wants and Google doesn't want to lose out on.
- Apple believes it can sell more mobile devices by differentiating its mapping feature from Google's. Apple also hopes to convince developers to build more original map-related apps.
