Apple to Initially Launch Transit Directions in Just Six Cities With iOS 9

Apple's Maps application is rumored to receive some improvements with iOS 9, including Transit directions. Unfortunately, the initial rollout of the cities that will be supported with Apple Transit may be much more limited than what some had hoped. Despite being absent from Maps for three years now, 9to5mac says Apple Maps will only support transit directions for six cities at launch.

In the United States, the planned launch cities are San Francisco and New York, two major metropolitan areas that are known for public transportation, while Toronto will be likely Canada’s sole representative for the iOS 9 Maps Transit feature at launch. In Europe, Apple is said to be gearing up to first launch the feature in London, Paris, and Berlin.

Apple has accumulated its own data for North America and Europe, but the company is working with longtime partner AutoNavi to source data for China. The report notes that while only six cities are planned for iOS 9's launch in the Fall, but Apple is already working on the next wave of cities. Boston, Massachusetts and Tokyo, Japan are Apple's two top priorities.

In iOS 9, Apple has developed the Maps application to support dynamically adding more cities to the Maps application OTA. No full software update would be required to get transit directions for more cities. Apple will also notify users via a push notification if support is added in their current city of residence.

Apple will reveal iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 at WWDC in June. Both releases will primarily be focused on "quality" with several security and performance enhancements and even a new font.

Please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or RSS for updates.