Apple confirmed to AllThingsD that it has in fact purchased the transit navigation service ‘HopStop.’ Anyone who has ever used Apple’s Maps App knows what a disaster it is. It is likely that Apple acquired HopStop as a way to incorporate the firm’s technology into its own Maps App and to perhaps improve it.
HopStop offers users bus, train, subway, walking, car, and bicycle directions and routing. It also supports transit information for over 300 major cities. With transit directions, transit maps, schedules, and nearby stations, it’s already more impressive (and useful) than Apple’s Maps app and can be checked out and downloaded (for both Android and Apple devices) at HopStop.com.
With HopStop on its side, Apple might actually be a force to reckon with when it comes to Google Maps, the current reigning champ of navigation apps.