written by By Chloe Albanesius

 Apple will drop Google Maps and incorporate its own 3D-mapping technology in iOS 6, according to a new report.

As reported by 9to5Mac, the next version of Apple's mobile OS will include "a completely in-house maps application." It will be similar to the existing Google Maps app that comes pre-installed on iOS devices, but will have that Apple touch, the blog said.

The technology will be made possible thanks to a trio of acquisitions Apple has made in recent years - Placebase, C3 Technologies, and Poly9. Rumors about Apple ditching Google for its own mapping solution made the rounds in October when the C3 purchase was reported.

How will this translate into iOS 6? As noted by 9to5Mac, the most-impressive feature is 3D mode, which could be added as an optional mapping layer, like the existing traffic, satellite, hybrid, and list layers.

Further details about iOS 6 are expected at next month's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which kicks off June 11 in San Francisco.

"We have a great WWDC planned this year and can't wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers," Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said in a statement last month. "The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world."

Apple has already altered mapping within iPhoto, replacing Google Maps images with the crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap. It took some heat, however, for not giving OpenStreetMap credit for the images, finally acknowledging the grab earlier this month.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

(the copyright of this article is reserved by Ziff Davis, Inc.)