At their Developers' Conference in San Francisco, Apple have hit back in the growing feud between themselves and competitor Google with two major announcements.


Their first is the unceremonious dumping of Google Maps, previously inherent to iPhone. According to the AP:

"Google's Maps application has resided on the iPhone since Apple launched the very first version of the phone in 2007. It is one of the core apps on the phone, and can not be deleted by the user.
"But now, Apple executives said Google Maps will be replaced by an Apple-developed app in iOS 6, the new operating system for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. It is set to be released late this year."
This move is incredibly significant for Apple as they are at last casting their competitors' product aside in favour of their own technologies, which die-hard Apple fans (and investors) will greatly appreciate. The mobile market is a hotly-contested area between Apple's operating system iOS 6 and Google's Android platform, and with Android now on a level playing field with the iPhone, bold moves like this are becoming the norm between competitors.

This clean-sweep removal of Google Maps opens up a goldmine of new user data for Apple that previously Google had been gathering through their competitors' system. Having a legitimate alternative to Google Maps further strenghtens the Apple brand.

Apple twisted the knife further by announcing "the best Facebook experience ever on a mobile device" will be a major part of iOS 6, further distancing themselves from Facebook's major competitor - you guessed it - Google Plus.

This new integration, according to the Guardian, will open Facebook out to Apple products like never before:
"The deeper inclusion of Facebook, which will be baked into the iOS operating system rather as Twitter was into iOS 5, means users will log in once with their Facebook details, and will then be able to easily post to Facebook from within their apps, to 'Like' apps, and see which apps their Facebook friends are 'Liking', and see Facebook events, contacts and birthdays within the iOS calendar and contacts apps."
Despite no announcements about Apple TV and more lots talk about Siri, Apple's moves have already got fans excited about the new OS and, crucially, dealt a blow to their main rivals.