There are a number of applications that I see as being ‘key’ to a mobile OS – and a decent, capable Maps app is one of them.

Firefox OS, Android, Blackberry, and iOS all provide their users with one out of the box. But Ubuntu Touch, which hit version 1.0 earlier this month, doesn’t.

At least not yet, that is.

Users aren’t completely lost, mind. Google Maps can be accessed from the browser, and there’s a web-app packaged up for Here Maps from Nokia.

But lacking a native, integrated app is something that – in my opinion at least – that Ubuntu Touch needs sooner rather than later.

Mappero Coming to Ubuntu Touch

So I was pretty stoked to learn that Maemo app Mappero – see image at top of article – is coming to Ubuntu Touch.

Mappero offers mapping data from a variety of sources – including Yahoo!, Google and OpenStreetMaps, along with GPS tracking and turn-by-turn voice navigation.

The developer of the app, Alberto Mardegan, notes that while he has successfully got the app up and running on Ubuntu it ‘doesn’t do anything useful now’, though adds that he has ‘grand plans for it’.

It may be a fair distance from being a first-class solution for Ubuntu, but it is at least a step in the right direction.

You can see Mappero running on Ubuntu Touch in the video below.