I don’t know if Apple is regionally biased or whether they have priority criteria for deciding which countries to serve. Apple posted a list of all the major features of iOS 6 and the countries where they will be available.
Firstly Maps, Standard Maps and Satellite Maps will be available in almost all the countries. Directions Maps seem to be missing from many countries including India, North Korea and quite many countries of Asia basically the Indian Subcontinent which may be pertinent with their development status. The list for turn by Turn navigation is even shorter; it skips out most of Asia and South America. 3D Buildings are only available in The States. Traffic Maps are only available in some major countries which includes the North America skipping Mexico, South America is completely skipped and so is most of Asia, China is there though. Maps for the local search include most countries but again for Business Reviews the list is pretty short.
The availability of Apple’s NLUI SiRi has limited availability on various fronts. Integration of SiRi with Sports, Twitter, and Facebook are only available in a handful of countries like Australia, USA, Germany, and some in Asia like China, Japan and South Korea. The list shortens further for using SiRi for Local Searches, restaurant information and reviews, movie information and reviews; they include USA, Australia, Canada, UK and some other major developed countries. Restaurant reservations and Movie show times are only available in Canada, UK, USA and Mexico.
The iTunes store for music and movies is available in almost all the major countries. However for TV shows the availability is limited to only six countries which include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, UK and USA. Dictation is available in USA, some major countries of Europe like UK, Italy, and France etc. In Asia only China, Hong Kong and South Korea get the treat.
Lastly the App Store for apps and games has the longest list, they include all the major countries and many more, and so regarding this feature customers are not going to have many complaints.
The iOS 6 which is scheduled to be introduced on the 19th of September is meant to take Apple’s experience to a new level. We all are aware that the services Apple products offer are quite intricate and so it is not possible for them to introduce every feature in every country and it also partially depends on the telecommunication industry of the particular country.
