Google Schedules a Special Maps Event — Set Five Days Before Apple’s WWDC
This Friday, Google invited journalists to a June 6 event where it will unveil the future of Google Maps. It’s curious timing considering that just a few days later on June 11, Apple is expected to unveil the future of its iOS Maps app — an app that’s rumored to ditch Google Maps as its data engine.
Apple’s event, its Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, has been on the calendar for ages. Could Google be responding to buzz about Apple’s new mapping strategy by sliding in a mapping announcement of its own, right before Apple’s grand reveal?
The timing of Google’s June 6 press event does seem a bit strange, especially considering the company’s own yearly developer mega-event, Google I/O, is less than a month away. Charles Golvin, a Forrester analyst, says the timing of the Google Maps event — right before WWDC and broken out from I/O — could reasonably be interpreted as a move to steal a bit of Apple’s thunder, especially if Apple does actually dump Google Maps.