It has been rumored for a long time that Apple could launch a new version of the Maps application that would work based on maps provided by a mapping company bought by Apple a few years ago. Before WWDC 2011, Google announced that Apple extended the contract by which it licensed the possibility to use the Google Maps service for its applications, and then all hopes for a turn-by-turn navigation system disappeared. In Apple's iOS 5 introduced a new section called Map Data in which it lists a series of specifications on how the information of the Maps application and the APIs made available by Apple for developers can be used.
In that list, Apple mentions many companies that produce and sell GPS navigation software, but Google is not mentioned and it is speculated that Apple could prepare its own navigation system. Among those companies there are 2 called Urban Mapping and Waze which are mentioned as offering the services we have talked about so far in several patents registered by Apple. The 2 companies would provide real-time information about the traffic in the areas where we are going to travel, but also information about those areas (crime rate, economic indices, etc.) and from this some have concluded that Apple is preparing something. If Apple is testing its own navigation system, then we will probably have it available somewhere in the future, but it is unlikely to appear in iOS 5.
