Apple has just announced their own mapping app that would be part of the iOS 6 update.

The company has made a bunch of acquisitions in the past that relates to mapping technologies. Apple claimed that they have worked hard on this app.

But the fact remains, it is not easy to get maps of the entire world with utmost accuracy. Google is still working hard on improving their maps of the developing countries.

Online sources are indicating that TomTom is one of the third party sources that are credited in the app’s acknowledgement page. Apple is probably licensing map data for some countries from TomTom and other companies.

OpenStreetMap is also said to be one of the suppliers. Apple already uses OpenStreetMap data in their iPhone app. Apple does not like to publicly credit such collaborations. Apple Siri for example is powered by Nuance technology but very few people actually know about it.