After HopStop Acquisition, Apple Drops Support for Windows Phone

Posted 07/22/2013 at 5:04pm | by Leif Johnson

Windows Phone users who use the popular public transport app HopStop received a nasty surprise over the weekend as they tried to get around. On the heels of Apple's acquisition of the app on Friday, the Cupertino giant dropped all support without warning, leading to protests from the affected commuters across Twitter and the review pages for the app. As of today, HopStop's still available on Google Play.

The removal of the app was first sighted (appropriately enough) by?WindowsObserver.?As we reported last week, Apple's acquisition most likely means it's planning on incorporating the free app's features into a future build of its beleaguered Apple Maps for iOS and (with the release of Mavericks) Mac OS X. If so, that could go a long way toward giving Apple the edge it needs over Google's infinitely better map application. Not only does HopStop provide public transport information for over 300 cities, but it also includes rarer features such as bicycle routes.

The good news for us (and I suppose, Android users) is that the app remains on iTunes and Google Play, although it may only be a matter of time before the app disappears from the latter as well. It's also currently unclear if HopStop will stick around as an independent app once the additions (again, presumably) make their way into Apple Maps.

As a popular Reddit thread points out, these kinds of shutdowns happens all the time; indeed, one of the most notable examples cited is that the massively popular (and lucrative) Xbox series Halo was originally intended for the Mac. After losing that, the loss of a niche navigation app seems like small fries indeed. It's also not the first time Apple's pulled something like this; as AppleInsider reports, Apple performed a similar shutdowns with the search engine Chomp as recently as last year.?

Follow this article's writer, Leif Johnson, on Twitter.

Source: http://www.maclife.com/article/news/after_hopstop_acquisition_apple_drops_support_windows_phone

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