Retail outlet guide for mobiles, Point Inside, is unveiling a major upgrade of its service with detailed maps of airports across North America for Apple devices.
The company claims the pair of apps for iPhone and iPad are a major breakthrough in location-based mapping and guides as existing services on devices are limited to only what is available on map products such as Google or Bing.
The maps show facilities such as gate locations, bars, restaurants, shops, toilets, information booths and baggage claim areas in 50 airports around the US and Canada.
The system works by pinpointing a user's location within an airport using what the company calls its SmartFix technology - a way of tracking the device within the facility via existing GPS or wi-fi systems and calibrating the location onto the map.
However, the company has recognised the difficulty GPS devices often have within buildings, claiming that if such a method is "inaccurate, as is often the case indoors, SmartFix prompts the user to provide her own position by selecting a nearby landmark".
Users are also able to search for facilities and browse through maps when offline mode using data stored within the app.
Point Inside is available on all Apple devices (including Touch and iPad) and an app is expected for Android phones in the future.
CEO Kevin Foreman says the company is looking to grow the airport database in the coming months and will be targeting other countries around the world as well.
Point Inside, run by a team with experience from the likes of Amazon, AT&T, Boeing, Qualcomm, and RealNetworks, started in 2008 as a shopping app service for outlets across North America.