The battle of controlling the mobile mapping segment between the two giants, Google and Apple continues further as Apple filed a patent application recently. This patent filing was posted in the website of US patent and Trademark office last Thursday and indicates that Apple is targeting to develop a new version of street mapping system via a smartphone or a tablet.
In 2007, Google launched street view and the product has been quite popular since then. Now the details in the patent filing indicate that Apple intends to outshine Google’s street view with their new product, Apple Street View. It says that in currently prevailing applications the viewer has to move from one street intersection to another and pan the device in the target direction to get a panoramic view. According to Apple, this can be a “tedious” experience for anyone trying to move quickly through streets and corners.
As stated in the patent filing, a viewer can virtually move through the streets using this system in his device, by merely pointing the device in the intended direction. This will make it easier to navigate forward or backward, more quickly through a street for a viewer. The product will also be able to scale distance data to any virtual location within the panoramic view provided. The product can be used to provide the indoor panoramic imagery of buildings, for e.g. shopping plazas, which will help the user to a greater extent.
Another new feature allowed in this product is pairing of devices. Two smartphones or tablets can be coupled by keeping them side by side and this will provide a larger and richer panoramic imagery. Here, the two devices can be arranged in a landscape and portrait combination for greater ease of viewing. Apart from these basic features there will also be other enhancements available in the product to make it more usable and popular.
The Apple maps product in iOS 6, which Apple launched last September, failed to get a positive response due to it’s poor quality and various flaws, including bugs. So Apple had to revert to Google maps for the iOS 6 in last December. After that failure, Apple seems to be gearing up to bring about a whole new experience in street mapping segment for the smart applications by launching the new Apple Street View.