Apple has unveiled its latest mobile operating system that features the company's own mobile mapping service and improved search capabilities for the Siri voice assistant.
The IOS6, revealed at Apple's annual developers' conference, sees the company tweak several features to try to enhance its ability to entice users to stay within its system.
Chief executive Tim Cook, who took over from late co-founder Steve Jobs last August, spearheaded the unveiling of new services - such as in-house mapping, beefed-up Siri software, address-bar search on its Safari browser - to help keep at bay Google and its fast-growing Android mobile platform.
Apple is attempting to keep its applications and hardware environment ahead of competition from Android device makers such as Samsung Electronics and Motorola Mobility.
The new system's highlight was the debut of Apple's in-house mapping service after years of development, a challenge to the same Google service that is one of the most popular functions on both Android smartphones and the iPhone.
The new mapping system will be replacing Google Maps, until now a pre-loaded app on the iPhone and iPad, with its own in-house map service, delivering a big blow to Google, which gets about half its mobile map traffic from Apple mobile devices. Apple's new iOS6 mobile software will be available in the autumn.
The move signals how the friendship between the two tech giants - former Google CEO Eric Schmidt once sat on Apple's board - has become a bitter rivalry shaping the evolution of the mobile industry. Mr Jobs was famously quoted as saying he was willing to go "thermo nuclear" on the search leader after it decided to position Android against the iPhone.
Now Apple will do its utmost to reduce its reliance on Google, said Colin Gillis, analyst with BGC Partners. "What happens if one day Google decides to not provide Apple with maps," said Gillis. "You can't have that kind of dependency on a competitor."
Apple's map service comes with three-dimensional images of cities called "Flyover" along with real-time traffic updates and also turn-by-turn navigation, the last a feature that Google has in Android devices but had not made available in Apple devices.
Siri, the innovative voice-activated iPhone search-feature users have criticised as faulty and inadequate, will now also be available on iPads and recites a larger database of answers, especially in relation to sports, restaurants and movies.
Siri is also integrated into the new mapping service so users can ask for step-by-step directions.
While Apple is late to the game with turn-by-turn directions, Forrester analyst Charles Golvin said that Apple's new service featured various improvements, demonstrating Apple's ability to take an experience offered by rivals and "go even further".
He also cited a new app for iPhone and iPads called Passbook that organises a user's electronic airline tickets, movie tickets and restaurant loyalty cards. The app is a "harbinger of them doing much, much more," he said pointing to the electronic payment and mobile commerce market.
Executives said Apple has also integrated social network Facebook deeper into the operating system, allowing Siri-users to post photos with voice commands.
Long lines marked the beginning of the week-long annual Worldwide Developers' Conference, where Apple developers rub shoulders with employees, test the latest products and software, and connect with peers.
The consumer device giant introduced an all-new addition to its MacBook Pro lineup, Apple's highest-end laptops. At 0.7 inches and weighing under 4.5 pounds, the new MacBook Pro ranks among the thinnest laptops in the market and will hit store shelves months before many Microsoft Windows-equipped "Ultrabooks."
They will employ the "retina" displays that have won strong positive reviews for the new iPad but start at $2,199 (€1,765).
Along with the introduction of the new MacBook Pro, Apple also updated it current Mac lineup including the MacBook Air.
More than ever, Apple finds itself in a pitched battle with Google: in smartphones, cloud computing, and a never-ending competition to attract the best software developers.
Battling in many arenas, the rivals employ different weapons. Apple's intense grip on its systems - with the closely managed app store and seamless integration with hardware - stands in stark contrast to Google's free-for-all approach.
The open system approach, reminiscent of Microsoft's hugely successful strategy of creating standard-setting software that runs on a variety of hardware, has allowed Android to capture the market lead in smartphones, albeit with nothing close to Apple's profit margins.
Android has also helped create several potent hardware rivals to Apple. Samsung Electronics' Android-driven Galaxy SIII is drawing favourable comparisons to iPhone and Amazon.com Inc's cheaper Kindle Fire is challenging Apple in tablets and digital content.
Reuters
