You can add another name to the list of companies dropping Google Maps in favor of OpenStreetMap. When Wikipedia announced its new app for iOS today, they also announced that they would be using OpenStreetMap exclusively for the nearby view in both their iOS and Android mobile apps. Wikipedia feels this change will be a better fit for their goal of making knowledge available in a free and open manner to everyone.

This also means we no longer have to use proprietary Google APIs in our code, which helps it run on the millions of cheap Android handsets that are purely open source and do not have the proprietary Google applications.

Apple and Foursquare are a couple of other companies who have recently ditched Google Maps. It appears Google’s recent plan to charge high-volume users for access to its Maps APIs has led many to jump ship in favor of OpenStreetMap — which provides an open and free source of Map Data.

Since users are afforded the privilege of using these services for free anyways, it makes good business sense for companies to go with whichever service saves them money. What do you guys think, would you be upset if Google Maps started slowly disappearing off the, well… map?

• SourceWikimedia Blog