If you are an iOS user and you’re looking to download or update the Wikipedia app for your device, you will be interested to learn that it looks like Wikipedia has decided to drop the use of Google Maps in favor of OpenStreetMap. According to Wikipedia, by not relying on the Google API for their code, this would allow for the Wikipedia app for iOS and Android to run on cheaper and more unknown Android handsets who might not come with Google’s applications preinstalled.
It looks like Google’s plan to charge high-traffic developers for use of its Maps API could be backfiring. This would make Wikipedia one of the more high-profile apps to ditch Google Maps in favor of OpenStreetMap, which already includes Foursquare and Apple who recently and rather quietly switched to OpenStreetMaps in their iPhoto application for iOS devices. What do you guys think? Does this change anything for you, or do you not really care as long as it works?
Filed in . Read more about Apps, Google Maps, GPS and Wikipedia.