It’s no secret that Apple and Microsoft have been chatting about Bing becoming the search of choice for the iPhone. But Google provides a number of other services on the iPhone, and Steve Jobs has already addressed the fact that Google will remain there.
However, nothing has specifically been said about Maps, and that leaves a lot of questions.
Maps has been a primary function if the iPhone since launch. The ability to have built-in mapping software is amazing, and has become a must-have for any new smartphone on the market. Until now, Google has done a great job, but maybe it’s time to scoot over and let Microsoft play.
Bing Maps applications would bring real-time overlays of tons of useful information. Weather, from WeatherBug, real-time parking finders and gas prices are just a few of the ideas that have come to fruition so far. With an open SDK, developers for Bing Maps will be able to add in endless amounts of useful applications to an already-solid platform.
Though the new iPhone will have multitasking, the ability to have numerous useful layers in a single application is a best-use scenario. Save the multitasking for applications that do different things, and let Bing Maps do what it can do best with layers and self-hosted applications.
The Bing application for iPhone is already stunning, and integrating it as a service of the iPhone, at this point in the game, just makes sense.
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