Neil Hughes for AppleInsider:

The ability of third-party developers to create transit apps for iOS 6 was highlighted by Apple’s iOS software chief Scott Forstall at Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. He noted that a new application programming interface for transit apps to interface with Maps is a part of iOS 6.

“When building Maps, we looked around and realized the best transit apps for metros, for hiking, for biking, are coming from our developers,” Forstall told developers. “And so instead of trying to develop those ourselves, we are going to integrate and feature and promote your apps for transit right within the Maps app in iOS 6.”

Apple has been rightly criticized in the past for adding features to their operating system software that effectively kills the market for third-party applications that filled that gap before. So it’s good to see Forstall and Apple recognize an opportunity to help third-party developers fill the gap.

Still, if I were just getting started developing a transit app today, I might be concerned that somewhere down the road in the not too distant future, Apple might try to fill this gap themselves.