Apple quietly purchased Placebase, an online-mapping company, earlier this year. The acquisition could indicate the Cupertino, California, company’s plans to reduce its dependence on Google services, such as the Google Maps application currently built into the iPhone operating system.

The news of the acquisition broke unofficially on Twitter in July, but the buyout was only recently confirmed by ComputerWorld’s Seth Weintraub with some online sleuthing.

Jaron Waldman, former Placebase CEO, is now part of the “Geo Team” at Apple , according to his LinkedIn profile. Waldman does not disclose a description of his duties or the role of the Geo Team, leaving the tech community guessing over the purpose of this buyout.

Why would Apple purchase a mapping company?

The most obvious reason would be to buy the maps, of course. The Maps app included with the iPhone pulls geographic data from the Google Maps service, but the app itself was coded by Apple . Apple ’s iPhoto ‘09 organizes photos based on where they were taken, also using data from Google Maps.

Purchasing Placebase could enable Apple to incorporate its own mapping technologies. Perhaps the company will also embrace the opportunity to innovate around mapping and add a dash of exclusive geo-savvy features to its Macs, iPods and iPhones.

Apple ’s desire to wean itself from dependence on Google would not be surprising. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently resigned from Apple ’s board of directors due to “conflicts of interest” between the two companies. The resignation followed Apple ’s rejection of the Google Voice app for the iPhone , which led to an FCC investigation.

“As Apple and Google’s interests diverge, expect Apple to find ways to rely less and less on Google services,” said Michael Gartenberg, a tech strategist at Interpret. “It’s happening already.”

Of course, the Placebase acquisition was very recent, so it could be some time before we see what Apple has in store with mapping.

Here’s a clue of what Apple might deliver: In February, software developers tinkering with Mac OS X Snow Leopard said they discovered evidence that the operating system would support triangulation to approximate the latitude and longitude of a Mac. But when Snow Leopard released, that feature did not appear. Perhaps Apple is waiting to develop its own mapping technologies with Placebase before unlocking this new tool.

What are your ideas about what Apple could do with this buyout? Please add your thoughts in the comments below.

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Photo: SteveGarfield/Flickr