Interesting that this seems to redirect to Google Maps for me although we can infer with some degree of certainty that Apple has some future plans for this subdomain.
Apropos to Apple's shift to Open Street Map I feel both excited and apprehensive: for instance someone pointed out to me that the new maps won't display transit information (or don't currently, we'll have to see what happens after iOS 6 is launched) but at the same time I'm happy to see OSM gaining traction.
Edit, here's what dig tells us:
; <<>> DiG 9.7.3-P3 <<>> maps.apple.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 742
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;maps.apple.com. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
maps.apple.com. 2918 IN CNAME gsps28.ls.apple.com.
gsps28.ls.apple.com. 219 IN CNAME gsps28.isg-apple.com.akadns.net.
gsps28.isg-apple.com.akadns.net. 272 IN A 17.174.2.104
It's only partially OSM based, the Maps app cites TomTom and a few other providers in addition to OSM. At least for my city, OSM is showing a few roads Apple doesn't.
Whoever was speaking at the time (Forstall?) mentioned that they would showcase existing 3rd-party transit apps. Taking a look at the sketchy VTA, BART and CalTrain apps I've tried this is not an adequate replacement. Hopefully there'll be a way to access Google's maps through the web or a Google app.
You should check out Embark's transit apps http://letsembark.com/. I'm not in California so I'm not sure about their BART and CalTrain apps, but I use it in NYC and it's fantastic.
Apropos to Apple's shift to Open Street Map I feel both excited and apprehensive: for instance someone pointed out to me that the new maps won't display transit information (or don't currently, we'll have to see what happens after iOS 6 is launched) but at the same time I'm happy to see OSM gaining traction.
Edit, here's what dig tells us: