Apple has completed the rollout of the new Apple Maps

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Apple Maps West Virginia
Apple Maps West Virginia (Image credit: MacRumors)

What you need to know

  • The new Apple Maps has become available in the Southeast United States.
  • This marks the completion of the new map's rollout across the country.
  • Apple had promised to complete the rollout by the end of 2019.

Apple has reportedly completed the rollout of its updated mapping information to the last part of the United States that was awaiting the update. Reported by 9to5Mac, the iPhone owners in the southeast of the United States have started to see the updated map in the Apple Maps app, signifying that the U.S. rollout is now complete.

Apple has been rolling out its new map in stages throughout the year. Apple had turned on its new map in the Northwest back in November, the Midwest in October, and the Northeast in September. With the inclusion of the Southeast, it seems that the entire country is now finally covered, meeting Apple's promise of completing the rollout by the end of 2019.

Apple had been using third-party mapping services like TomTom since the iPhone was introduced. Over the years, however, the company realized that in order to bring the experience they wanted to consumers, it would require them to build their own mapping system from the ground up. As 9to5Mac reported in 2018, Eddy Cue stated that the company had been thinking about taking that step since 2014.

Cue says Apple is now focused on building the "best map app in the world" which requires "building all of our own map data from the ground up." He adds that Apple decided it needed to provide its own first-party mapping data, not just the application with third-party data providers, over four years ago. The advantages of the new mapping system include the ability to update and correct data in real-time. Cue says the new maps infrastructure will allow Apple to address road work and corrections much faster than the current version.

Apple announced the new Apple Maps at WWDC 2019. It not only includes a much more highly detailed map but new features like Collections and Look Around, features aimed at competing with Google Map's Lists and Street View.

Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.