Apple is wary of leaving such a key component for the iPhone in the hands of one of its biggest rivals and getting ready to dump Google Maps, reports. Over the past three years Apple has purchased three mapping companies: , , and C3 Technologies.  Apple in 2010 also revealed in a letter to Congress that it was for the iPhone -- something users.

Apple in fall 2011 replaced the iPhone's Google-made geocoder -- a piece of software that turns longitude and latitude into a point on a map -- with its own technology, according to the Journal.

Then, in early 2012, the first fruits of Apple's homegrown map effort turned up in .