The search giant plans to roll out offline maps and native iPad support soon

Dec 13, 2012 14:10 GMT  ·  By

Google has unofficially told the New York Times that its new Maps application received a great deal of attention, and that it would soon gain offline content as well as a native iPad interface. The official Google Maps application for iOS was just released today.

Google reportedly “admits” that its iOS port of Maps is “even better than Google Maps for Android phones,” according to David Pogue, who spoke with Google’s management.

In other words, Google went out of its way to create such a good experience for iOS that one could believe they did it out of spite. Jokes aside, Google will undoubtedly score a few extra points in the tech industry for delivering such a good product for a competing platform.

The application itself still lacks a few key features, like offline maps and native support for the iPad’s 10-inch display. Google said that “goodies like those will be coming soon,” Pogue reports.