Google Maps for iOS Downloaded More than 10 Million Times

samcraig said:

FYI - I think it's also important to realize that the # downloaded could very well be geographically centric.

Meaning - http://www.apple.com/euro/itunes/charts/apps/top10appstorefree.html

Notice a trend there. The app is # for free apps NOT in the USA.

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I dunno, these sales look very inaccurate. Google Maps gets 10 million downloads in 2 days, but only shows up in the Top 10 of a few random countries. I would have at least expected it to crack the Top 10 in every country (not just Greece, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia). Maybe these Top lists are based on staggered weeks.

App of the year 2012.

I have not had an opinion either way on the whole apple / google maps fiasco until today. I was trying to find a address to get the wife a gift and apple maps said the address didn't exist. I decided to try google and it found it before I even finished typing. I would like to jump on the bandwagon and write something about how much apple maps blow, but I will reframe so I don't sound like a negative nancy.

jwdsail said:

Meh

I downloaded it, hate it just as much as the new Apple Maps.

New Apple Maps - great UI, crappy data.

New Google Maps - crappy UI, great data...

How about you two kids kiss and make up and give us one map app with a great UI and great data? Is that asking to damn much? Really?

And git off my lawn!!!

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Crappy UI for Google Maps? Seriously? It's easier, faster, and more efficient than Apple Maps.

samcraig said:

I'd also say that 1 in 10 is pretty significant (based on 100 million) when you consider how many people claim their maps work just fine.

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By your logic... we can assume that 9 out of 10 is a pretty significant number of people who claim their maps work just fine.

just saying.... dont care either way.

newyorkone said:

Apple Maps is working fine for me in NYC. Don't need no stinkin' google maps and their big brother tracking and sponsored search returns.

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Same here. G Maps is there for those that want it & I'm glad for them that it is now, but Apple Maps has been working just fine for me so I have haven't even bothered to download G Maps.

MacRumors said:

The number of iOS 6 downloads has likely increased quite a bit over the last three months, indicating that the majority of iOS users have chosen to stick with Apple's Maps application rather than switching to Google Maps, despite the rampant complaints about the quality of the built-in app.

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This is not necessarily the case, others may be utilizing one of the many other paid or free apps available, such as: TomTom, Waze, Garmin, Yahoo Maps, etc.

In all honesty though, I have tried a majority of the free Apps and Google Maps provides the best directions out of them and is definitely better than Apple Maps, but my Ford Sync still does the best job.

I love how Google gave this away for free. They could have charged a dollar or two and made a small fortune, but did not. Probably because they didn't want Apple to profit off their mistake.

MacRumors said:

The number of iOS 6 downloads has likely increased quite a bit over the last three months, indicating that the majority of iOS users have chosen to stick with Apple's Maps application rather than switching to Google Maps, despite the rampant complaints about the quality of the built-in app.

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As others have stated, this is just complete conjecture. Many iOS users have no idea yet that Google Maps is even available. In fact, I would guess that a large portion of iOS users don't even know that Apple switched from Google Maps to Apple Maps in iOS 6. Unlike the iOS6 update, which Apple pushes out to users via notifications, there is nothing to alert iOS users that a Google Maps is available.

This is like saying the majority of Windows/Mac users have chosen to stick with Internet Explorer/Safari instead of switching to Firefox/Chrome when in reality many just don't care or know it's available.

Shoddy journalism.

I look at it as a win/win.

People who were having trouble can quit whining. People who weren't having trouble can quit being defensive. And most importantly, I don't have to hear the media talk about how iOS needs Google Maps.

I downloaded Google Maps even though I have been using Apple Maps exclusively since it came out and haven't had any issues at all. It's good to have options, and it's bad when the best option out there isn't available on your platform of choice. I'm a big fanboy of Apple, but I cannot sit here and honestly tell anyone that Apple Maps is a more complete product than Google Maps. Neither one is perfect. Apple Maps is integrated with Siri and the OS in general, Google Maps has more complete data in some parts of the world. They will both steer you wrong from time to time.

johnny5 said:

Crappy UI for Google Maps? Seriously? It's easier, faster, and more efficient than Apple Maps.

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Really. 90% of my addresses are in my contact records and Google Maps does not support them. That is a big limitation for me. However, I do have more confidence in the Google POI database so for those 10% I may use it.

See Flat said:

By your logic... we can assume that 9 out of 10 is a pretty significant number of people who claim their maps work just fine.

just saying.... don't care either way.

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I didn't say it wasn't. And I was responding to posts that people have made that the issue is overblown and eluding to the fact that those affected are few and far between.

No matter one looks at it - 10M downloads is impressive in 48 hours.

Comparatively - and I doubt we'll ever find out - how many downloads of iBooks for the iPhone occurred in 48 hours (or to date) vs Amazon Kindle?

How many Cards app?

I forget what the other free Apple iOS apps there are.

Point being - in my opinion 10M downloads of any app in 48 hours is impressive.

cmwade77 said:

This is not necessarily the case, others may be utilizing one of the many other paid or free apps available, such as: TomTom, Waze, Garmin, Yahoo Maps, etc.

In all honesty though, I have tried a majority of the free Apps and Google Maps provides the best directions out of them and is definitely better than Apple Maps, but my Ford Sync still does the best job.

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You are correct. In no sense does downloading iOS 6 equate to choosing Apple Maps. That makes zero logic.

kas23 said:

I wonder if this is total number of downloads or accounts that downloaded. I say this because many families will just use the same account to download their apps once on to 1 computer but then sync multiple iPhones to that computer. So, 1 account could actually equate to 3 downloads if there are 3 family members sharing the same account.

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Last weekend I went on a 300km trip. half the distance on apple maps and the other half on google maps, and then the same on the return trip, just to try out the differences.

Google is better at generic locations (e.g. "Georgetown"), but Apple maps is much nicer to use for specific addresses and I like the way it does the turn by turn. Ironically, even though apple maps supposedly uses the same data, it was more up to date than my tomtom app.

Apple needs to fix the way the algorithm does generic location data. then POI. Other than that it is potentially a great, easy to use app.

...

that is really good because even though there are many more iOS devices google maps has no ipad version so likely very few ipads will have downloaded it and ipod touch has no GPS so most people wouldn't care enough to download it onto their ipod touch either. 10 million iphones in that short a time period is pretty crazy

MacRumors said:

Though 10 million is a significant number,*it still represents just a fraction of iOS users. Only three days after iOS 6 was released on September 21, Apple announced that it had been downloaded onto more than 100 million devices.

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Whilst this is true, I do doubt the usefulness of a mapping application that needs GPS and a constant data connection with the millions of iPod touch and WiFi iPad devices out there.

Those "iOS users" are in the market share metric I'm assuming?

Count me as one of the 10 million....though I promptly deleted it after looking at it. No reason to use it for me - Apple maps works well. Just saying, you can't go by downloads to see what percentage of the iOS6 using population actually is choosing G Maps over Apple Maps.

If anything this just goes to show that more than 90% of people don't feel the need to switch back to google maps. When the rhetoric has been that HUGE numbers of people have been terribly inconvenienced (and even put in danger) by Apple maps, this information gives us some perspective. Really, the number isn't as big as haters/the media hoped - just very loud about their displeasure.

i like Apple maps

I will not download, I love my Apple maps - they just work for me so why give my data to Google.

Google can suck it.

samcraig said:

I didn't say it wasn't. And I was responding to posts that people have made that the issue is overblown and eluding to the fact that those affected are few and far between.

No matter one looks at it - 10M downloads is impressive in 48 hours.

Comparatively - and I doubt we'll ever find out - how many downloads of iBooks for the iPhone occurred in 48 hours (or to date) vs Amazon Kindle?

How many Cards app?

I forget what the other free Apple iOS apps there are.

Point being - in my opinion 10M downloads of any app in 48 hours is impressive.

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You are correct. Comparing an app downloaded to iOS downloaded is apples to oranges. First, unique downloads are tabulated differently for the two. An iOS installed equals an iOS downloaded, not so for app. Second, iOS 6 is available and appropriate for all iOS devices, while apps are not. There is no Google Maps iPad app and GMs would make little sense on an iPod touch (does it even have GPS?). Third, there is added pressure to download iOS updates (badges, prompts), while there is none for new apps. Lastly, an iOS is a pervasive entity. iOS likely offers hundreds of new features while apps are specialized and offer a limited number of features compared to an OS.

I downloaded Google maps since it was free and options are nice. I have had no issues with Apple maps and will most likely continue using Apple maps as my default map app but it's always nice to have a backup.

jrswizzle said:

If anything this just goes to show that more than 90% of people don't feel the need to switch back to google maps.

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No. You can't determine that at all.

pingpongdong said:

I will not download, I love my Apple maps - they just work for me so why give my data to Google.

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Google maps is free so why not download it for a backup option ?

jrswizzle said:

Count me as one of the 10 million....though I promptly deleted it after looking at it. No reason to use it for me - Apple maps works well. Just saying, you can't go by downloads to see what percentage of the iOS6 using population actually is choosing G Maps over Apple Maps.

If anything this just goes to show that more than 90% of people don't feel the need to switch back to google maps. When the rhetoric has been that HUGE numbers of people have been terribly inconvenienced (and even put in danger) by Apple maps, this information gives us some perspective. Really, the number isn't as big as haters/the media hoped - just very loud about their displeasure.

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As has been said, more data is needed to determine whether users actually prefer Google or Apple Maps.