With the war between Apple and Google raging on, it seams like Apple may be planning to divorce itself from Google Mapping technology which powers Apple's maps. The company recently purchased C3 Technologies which will add to Apple's efforts in creating a mapping solution independent of Google.With the purchase of C3 Technologies,Apple now has three compnies under it's name working on a new mapping system. Apple purchased Placebase in 2009 and Poly9 in 2010, so it's clear that the company has had a maps solution on it's mind for some time now. What C3 Technologies has in common with Poly 9 is that they are both 3D mapping companies.
the method used by C3 Technologies allows rendering of buildings, trees and even smaller objects and could offer an impressive alternate to street view offered in Google Maps.
Check out some of the maps rendered by C3 technologies and you can see the quality of what they have to offer:
You can get an even better idea of C3 Mapping in the video demos which follow:
We can expect to see a new maps feature in a future generation of iOS.