Apple is finally adding new set of features to its Maps ecosystem in India. The company has rolled out Nearby service for iPhone users in the country, which allows them to search for restaurants, gas stations or bank ATMs in an area. To make this work, open Apple Maps on your iPhone and tap on the search bar to look for particular item from the drop down list.
Apple Maps has been around for ages but in India it has been hard for the navigation platform to compete with Google Maps which has big first-mover advantage. Add to that, you have more than 98 percent users in the country with Android device, making Google Maps their default choice. With the introduction of iOS 13 and iPadOS in 2019, we have seen Apple making customisations to add features that are relevant for the Indian market. Offering Nearby for the country is next the move in making sure the navigation platform becomes relevant for its Indian users.
This comes after Apple added turn-by-turn navigation for Indian users in 2019. You might say these are basic features for Maps to offer but Apple has found it hard to set up its base in the country. However, it seems that setting up the Maps centre in the country is finally paying dividents for the company. Google Maps leads the segment for Android, and even though you have other third-party Maps option, Google has seemingly kept them on the sidelines. This is likely to have prompted MapmyIndia to partner with Huawei for its AppGallery Android ecosystem, becoming its go-to navigation app, since it can’t run Google’s Maps service.