iOS 6 Adoption Up 29% After Google Maps Hits App Store

Could it be that more people are buying iPhone 5/new iPads (which come with iOS 6 to begin with) for holiday gifts?
Originally Posted by nepalisherpa

lanirugzo said:

Good point. I have a hard time believing that many people waited to upgrade to iOS 6 just because of Apple Maps (which, I think, is not any worse than Google Maps).

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But if people bought all these new devices for holiday gifts shouldn't they show up after Christmas ?

nepalisherpa said:

Could it be that more people are buying iPhone 5/new iPads (which come with iOS 6 to begin with) for holiday gifts?

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No.

issues with data

I suppose this could possibly be the case if us Americans stop to consider the millions and millions of users in other countries (especially Japan, as noted by a previous poster). I'm in the US but since I'm in an area with public transit, many of my friends and I didn't upgrade till Maps was released. That scenario is probably a lot more common in nations where Maps was more problematic.

However, the chart only shows a week's worth of data. That means nothing. It's quite likely that iOS 6 activations go up on Fridays and Saturdays anyways. We'd need week over week comparisons over a long period of time to see if there was a note worthy difference this past week.

As another poster pointed out, the data is being provided by someone with ties to Maps, so again, fishy. I've no doubt a lot of people waited to upgrade to iOS6, but the data here is questionable.

Anecdotally speaking - there are 6 people that I know well enough to talk about their iPhones with them. All 6 (plus me) are now using Google Maps instead of the Apple map app. 4 of the 6 waited to upgrade to iOS 6 because of the maps fiasco. I wasn't so lucky; I upgraded the day after it came out and hadn't yet heard the terrible news. So I suffered, but no more.

Sure, it's only 6 people. And they're all adults, and all reasonably tech-savvy, and we all live around a major city so the transit directions thing was big. But still - 29% isn't believable? Take the fanboi hats, off, kids, for once. Or don't, who cares. Your precious Apple OS will be around for a while yet. You even have a CHOICE now of two different map apps. We didn't have that choice when iOS 6 was downloaded.

Wake up. You don't have any personal stake in whether more users like Google better than Apple. It's not a fkking football team, fer chrissakes.

katewes said:

I did not upgrade to iOS 6 because of the lack of Google Maps - but even now I'm not. Waiting for YouTube for iOS 6, or maybe I just don't feel like having an OS with Facebook integration all over the place. I do not want everything I do shared on Facebook. Who, at Apple, thought that Facebook integration was a good idea?

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Maybe some idiot guys who think that the billion users who daily uses Facebook might have found comforrtable to have it inregrated in the ios. That is, IF you want to integrate and share, as you always have the choice.

I guess you would probably better off with a 10 years old nokia, no risk of getting your very valuable private data going into some kind of big brother system that is ripping you off. You know, they are watching us.

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pirateyarrr said:

No.

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Sure the two millions of iphone sold in china had no effect whatsoever.
You might get a joob in analyzing data, send some cv.

iChrist said:

Umm no. Since the day you actually give the gift has not yet arrived. Those devices are not activated yet.

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Greg. said:

​

Doubt it. That'll show in data for the 25th Dec and onwards when people unwrap presents. People don't buy an iPad as a christmas gift for someone but open it first and play around with iOS6. LOL.

Anyway, the pick-up isn't surprising, glad someone tried to do something with the limited data on it. I've now advised my mother it is safe for her to update her iPhone for example since the Apple Maps were useless for where she lives in the UK.

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GS17 said:

Could it be that more people are buying iPhone 5/new iPads (which come with iOS 6 to begin with) for holiday gifts?
Originally Posted by nepalisherpa




But if people bought all these new devices for holiday gifts shouldn't they show up after Christmas ?

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pirateyarrr said:

No.

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You guys realize that there is a concept called "early gifting"?

...Apple maps: "flawed product"???

I have to say this: I absolutely LOVE Apple's Maps app. I saw that the new Google maps requires you to sign in to google to use all of it functions, simple things such as bookmarks it will not allow you to do otherwise. **** google. I won't give them a download count. I try to stay away from giving my info. to them just so they can sell it for advertising. (Google is ad-based, Apple is product-based.)

VECTOR graphics is a MAJOR plus! I hated how Google maps used bitmaps and how I had to wait for new bitmaps when zooming (so slow) ...zooming is much faster w/Apple maps. (edit) OH, and, google always covered the road names and numbers when showing your travel route, which I HATED, very annoying. Apple maps shows you the road numbers, that helps (major), but, I would REALLY like it if Apple would take that extra little step and make the route HIGHLIGHTED (transparent) instead of colored in SOLID, so we can see the roads (read the names) we are traveling on (when not using turn by turn).

Not only that, Apple Maps uses LESS data! And it is easier to use, better looking, works better, more options. Some have overreacted to something and blew it WAY out of proportion.

Google maps was never always correct. NOT the perfect maps app. I had issues with it sometimes not finding an address, sometimes putting me on the wrong part of a road, moving the destination pin, or gps jumping around. But it wasn't called a "flawed product"?

Yes, I have tried to get into Yelp, but, not liking it much. HOWEVER, Apple is supposedly talking w/Foursquare and if they integrate Foursquare into Apple Maps it will KILL google maps. Foursquare is an awesome app for finding places when going out of town, local information is there and it is current, and they are making it faster and easier to use. (Yelp seems kind of clunky and incomplete by comparison). I'm sticking with Apple maps, I know it will only get better.

Apple maps seems better to me than it was 3 months ago...they are working on it constantly.

MacRumors: please put something better at the top of your front page other than 3 points about Google Maps.

All your iPhones are belong to us (google).

benji888 said:

I have to say this: I absolutely LOVE Apple's Maps app. I saw that the new Google maps requires you to sign in to google to use all of it functions, simple things such as bookmarks it will not allow you to do otherwise. **** google. I won't give them a download count. I try to stay away from giving my info. to them just so they can sell it for advertising. (Google is ad-based, Apple is product-based.)

VECTOR graphics is a MAJOR plus! I hated how Google maps used bitmaps and how I had to wait for new bitmaps when zooming (so slow) ...zooming is much faster w/Apple maps. (edit) OH, and, google always covered the road names and numbers when showing your travel route, which I HATED, very annoying. Apple maps shows you the road numbers, that helps (major), but, I would REALLY like it if Apple would take that extra little step and make the route HIGHLIGHTED (transparent) instead of colored in SOLID, so we can see the roads (read the names) we are traveling on (when not using turn by turn).

Not only that, Apple Maps uses LESS data! And it is easier to use, better looking, works better, more options. Some have overreacted to something and blew it WAY out of proportion.

Google maps was never always correct. NOT the perfect maps app. I had issues with it sometimes not finding an address, sometimes putting me on the wrong part of a road, moving the destination pin, or gps jumping around. But it wasn't called a "flawed product"?

Yes, I have tried to get into Yelp, but, not liking it much. HOWEVER, Apple is supposedly talking w/Foursquare and if they integrate Foursquare into Apple Maps it will KILL google maps. Foursquare is an awesome app for finding places when going out of town, local information is there and it is current, and they are making it faster and easier to use. (Yelp seems kind of clunky and incomplete by comparison). I'm sticking with Apple maps, I know it will only get better.

Apple maps seems better to me than it was 3 months ago...they are working on it constantly.

MacRumors: please put something better at the top of your front page other than 3 points about Google Maps.

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I would help if you did not just post here but also read what others write. You'd know (and this has been said about a million times) that Google Maps on Android used vector graphics for many years now and that new Google Maps for iOS uses vector graphics as well. Apple Maps has nothing on Google Maps.
In fact it just has very little period.

a0me said:

I realize that your experience may vary depending on where you live. I live in Japan and Apple Maps are completely unusable over here: public transit is the main travel mode in this 130-million people island, but even major train stations (some of the busiest hubs in the world) don't show up on Apple Maps, and the App doesn't give directions for public transit. The fact that the mapping data that Apple Maps use is grossly inaccurate, has about zero POI and can't tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Korean, is just the cherry on top.

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Absolutely—there are some bad areas. Even, I’m sure in the US. But I’m seeing a lot more general “Apple maps are bad for you” comments around the web, vs. specific (and valid) ones like yours. (And very little note being made of Google’s own holes and errors across the globe.) So, Apple’s maps are certainly better than Google’s in some places (my US city, China supposedly), and certainly worse in others (clearly Japan for one). Overall is it a step back in data quality? That I’d need data to see—data which nobody has provided.

It’s certainly a step forward in features, and there is hope for the data to improve where it’s lacking. I wouldn’t count Apple out on that. Meanwhile, Google is back as well. Victory! Pretty silly of Google to wait this long to release it when they had years of warning (we all knew this was coming). They could have dealt with all approval hurdles long before iOS 6 even came along. But at least it’s a decent app in the end! Better late than never.

lilo777 said:

I would help if you did not just post here but also read what others write. You'd know (and this has been said about a million times) that Google Maps on Android used vector graphics for many years now and that new Google Maps for iOS uses vector graphics as well. Apple Maps has nothing on Google Maps.
In fact it just has very little period.

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Doesn’t matter: the current Google Maps app is NOT the option Apple had to choose from. Google wouldn’t let them HAVE those features in the built-in app. Fair enough: Google wants to insert ads and track people, and Apple doesn’t want those things, and does want to control their own core services rather than relying on a competitor forever. The band-aid had to come off. The only possible compromise (and a good one) is TWO apps—which is what we now have.

And I find a lot to like in Apple’s maps over Google’s new app. Both are very good and it’s reasonable to prefer either. Street View and Transit are good things. But Google’s lack of Contacts support, lack of local bookmarks (you must sign up with them), lesser navigation display in my view, and lack of Flyover (mainly just fun—but a lot of it!) plus general lack of OS integration (which means much more than just accepting map links when clicked) are genuine negatives for me.

I'm confused about stats. There's at least 100 million iOS 6 capable devices out there (the adoption rate was over 65-70%) after 30 days, add all the new devices sold this quarter are all iOS 6... lets just guess 100 million (the majority of them frequent/daily users)

How can the 10 million Google maps cause an increase of 30%? If this is true, there's only around 35 million (or less) daily unique iOS 6 users - which I highly doubt.

.

MacRumors said:

[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]


Google Maps was released for iOS on December 12, and in the five days after it hit the App Store, ad management platform MoPub noticed a 29 percent increase in unique iOS 6 users.

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And what were the launch dates for the iPhone in the month of December. Wasn't there a pack of new countries just that weekend which had something like 10 million iPhones sold. So by said week they would be downloading apps and might show up in said ad market. How might that skew their numbers. Are they actually tracking devices over time and now for fact that these x devices that had 5.x the week before had 6.x AND google maps app after said day. Or are they just counting how many 6.x devices they have each day with no real way to prove anything

lilo777 said:

I would help if you did not just post here but also read what others write. You'd know (and this has been said about a million times) that Google Maps on Android used vector graphics for many years now and that new Google Maps for iOS uses vector graphics as well. Apple Maps has nothing on Google Maps.
In fact it just has very little period.

Click to expand...

It's pretty obvious that Apple invented vector map .

Yup, Android has been doing it for about 2 years already.

lilo777 said:

...Google Maps on Android used vector graphics for many years now...

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KevinN206 said:

It's pretty obvious that Apple invented vector map .

Yup, Android has been doing it for about 2 years already.

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Again, doesn’t matter: Google wasn’t giving vector maps to Apple’s app. The two companies, for legitimate reasons, could not meet each others’ demands. To get vector, Apple needed new data sources. They got them, and we now reap that benefit.

As for Android having vector for years, please correct my timeline if I have this wrong, but I could have sworn vector maps first appeared in Honeycomb, which was tablet-only. Phones didn’t get them until Ice Cream Sandwich, right? But that’s only just over a year old. And then you must also admit that most Android phones have not been running the latest Android version as soon as it gets released. So a TON of Android users have been lacking even Ice Cream Sandwich. Most Android users have NOT had vector maps for “many years."

nagromme said:

As for Android having vector for years, please correct my timeline if I have this wrong, but I could have sworn vector maps first appeared in Honeycomb, which was tablet-only. Phones didn’t get them until Ice Cream Sandwich, right? But that’s only just over a year old. And then you must also admit that most Android phones have not been running the latest Android version as soon as it gets released. So a TON of Android users have been lacking even Ice Cream Sandwich. Most Android users have NOT had vector maps for “many years."

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Android isn't quite like iOS, where the individual apps get updated only when a new OS version comes out. It's more Windows/OSXish in that regard. As in, vector maps came out in Google Maps 5, which was released across the entire Android platform, regardless of if it's Gingerbread, Honeycomb, or ICS.

nagromme said:

Doesn’t matter: the current Google Maps app is NOT the option Apple had to choose from. Google wouldn’t let them HAVE those features in the built-in app. Fair enough: Google wants to insert ads and track people, and Apple doesn’t want those things, and does want to control their own core services rather than relying on a competitor forever. The band-aid had to come off. The only possible compromise (and a good one) is TWO apps—which is what we now have.

And I find a lot to like in Apple’s maps over Google’s new app. Both are very good and it’s reasonable to prefer either. Street View and Transit are good things. But Google’s lack of Contacts support, lack of local bookmarks (you must sign up with them), lesser navigation display in my view, and lack of Flyover (mainly just fun—but a lot of it!) plus general lack of OS integration (which means much more than just accepting map links when clicked) are genuine negatives for me.

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I replied to a post where the guy compared Apple Maps with the latest version of Google Maps so it's irrelevant how the old app worked. Also, there is no ads in the Google Maps (at least on Android, do they have them on iOS?). As far as integration of Google maps into iOS is concerned, it might not be perfect but how much is it because of the iOS limitations? It took Apple major iOS release to integrate Twitter and then another release to integrate Facebook. Nobody (but Apple) can integrate any app well into iOS.

Renzatic said:

Android isn't quite like iOS, where the individual apps get updated only when a new OS version comes out. It's more Windows/OSXish in that regard. As in, vector maps came out in Google Maps 5, which was released across the entire Android platform, regardless of if it's Gingerbread, Honeycomb, or ICS.

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Ah—right. Makes sense. Not just since October 2011 then—my bad—Google Maps 5 came out almost exactly 2 years ago. Still, not exactly “many years” either.

(I wonder what the adoption rate is for app udpates on Android? Better than OS updates, hopefully. Never saw any data on that detail.)

The timeframes involved really put into perspective how long this has been coming! Apple has known since December 2010 at the latest that they weren’t receiving vector data from Google, while Android was. And Google has known Apple was seriously looking at moving away from them ever since Apple started buying map companies—Placebase in summer 2009, Poly 9 in summer 2010 and C3 in fall of last year. (I’d forgotten how quickly Apple moved between buying C3 and releasing Flyover.)

lilo777 said:

I replied to a post where the guy compared Apple Maps with the latest version of Google Maps so it's irrelevant how the old app worked. Also, there is no ads in the Google Maps (at least on Android, do they have them on iOS?). As far as integration of Google maps into iOS is concerned, it might not be perfect but how much is it because of the iOS limitations? It took Apple major iOS release to integrate Twitter and then another release to integrate Facebook. Nobody (but Apple) can integrate any app well into iOS.

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Clarification: not ads as in banners or full-screen, but ads as in sponsored pins on the map. I’ve seen those even in the old Maps app. I didn’t find it to be so often that it was a big burden, just an annoyance—maybe they went away again?--but it’s a reasonable guess that Google wanted more of that. It’s how they make their money. Does Android not have those sponsored map locations? Kudos to Google if they restrained themselves in that!

And yes, Google Maps lack of OS integration is not at all Google’s fault. Apple allows them to open links targetted specifically AT Google Maps, and passes transit route requests to them... and that’s about all Google CAN do. An app developed as part of the OS is bound to be better integrated. I’m not blaming Google here (or Apple), just pointing out advantages of the built-in Maps app.

(I do blame Google for one form of OS integration that Apple allows but Google skipped: Contacts integration. Google wants you to upload you contacts to them instead, I’m sure. I like that I can start typing in the default Maps app and it will auto-complete my friends’ names, suggesting both home and work addresses. Ditto for work contacts, family, doctors... even my most-used transit stops! Thus I can find them more easily in the Maps app than I can with Google, even if Google has to provide the train schedule in the end.)

ChazUK said:

No it doesn't.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/20/googles-andy-rubin-defines-android-activation-trumpets-700-0/



For a spewing hater, you are very uneducated in the matter.

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This implies that they only count cellular devices and not tablets, which I find dubious.

Well, I was one of those waiting for google maps. Installed that first and then upgraded to iOS6. Though I already had iOS6 on my iPad and it's nice now to have iBooks match.

MattInOz said:

Google have been pretty smart about timing on this to have silly writers give them credit for a whole bunch of un-related spikes.

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Wow! Just wow! The ignorance of certain fanbois is really REALLY huge and unbelievable!

Forgot already that is was ******** Apple who dictated the timing of the publishing of iOS 6 and threw out Google Maps prematurely (the license contract with Google would have lasted over more than a year still - REMEMBER?)?

Now Google reacted as fast as possible by developing a new app (well, porting the code over from their Android code base probably), and now all of a sudden it is "perfect timing on Google's side and everything a big conspiracy, but at least our Apple shines"?

Or ******** what is your point anyway!


Edit: as a matter of fact I know MANY people, especially in my company, who were holding off especially for THAT VERY MAPPING REASON! Go figure!

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benji888 said:

..., but, I would REALLY like it if Apple would take that extra little step and make the route HIGHLIGHTED (transparent) instead of colored in SOLID,

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Transparent labels! Yeaaaa rrrrright....! I really do hope you'll never be any decision maker anywhere (for sure not in IT)!

benji888 said:

Not only that, Apple Maps uses LESS data!

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They WISH they could use more - but they don't HAVE more

All this is rather moot. What Apple does going forward is what will shape it's relevance. The sooner they put this debacle behind them, the better off they'll be.

nagromme said:

Doesn’t matter: the current Google Maps app is NOT the option Apple had to choose from. Google wouldn’t let them HAVE those features in the built-in app. Fair enough: Google wants to insert ads and track people, and Apple doesn’t want those things, and does want to control their own core services rather than relying on a competitor forever. The band-aid had to come off. The only possible compromise (and a good one) is TWO apps—which is what we now have.

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It is not that Apple doesn't want those things, it is that it wants it to themselves. Apple is in the advertising business just as Google is (albeit, not quite as successful so far). Apple will track you just as much as Google will .. it is a sad truth of the internet these days.

nepalisherpa said:

Could it be that more people are buying iPhone 5/new iPads (which come with iOS 6 to begin with) for holiday gifts?

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If they're holiday gifts, they shouldn't be activated (and causing traffic online) yet

bma said:

Unless I'm seeing things differently:

Wed-Thur: gradient far less than Tue-Wed
Thur-Fri: gradient about the same as Tue-Wed
Fri-Sat: gradient steeper than Tue-Wed, which is normal since more people will be at home to update. That, and more people will buy new phones at the weekend.

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vannibombonato said:

Are the dates by the way matching the 2-millions iphone5 china weekend?

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The jump from 112% to 129% coincides with the release of the iPhone 5 in 33 more countries, including 2 million devices in China (and i guess 1-2 million more in the 32 other countries (some small but rich countries in there, but no market large enough to warrant a mention like "2 million in CHINA!").

Also - when you are upgrading to a devices that runs iOS 6+, there's no use in waiting to upgrade your older to device to iOS 6 too, for compatibility reasons or because you are going to sell it anyway, so i guess there were also some upgrades by people who were waiting to upgrade their iPhone 3GS or 4 (maybe because of Google Maps, maybe not) and when they had to go iOS 6 with their new iPhone 5, they could also FULLY go iOS 6 on their older devices.

a0me said:

- Over 10 million iOS users downloaded Google Maps in its first 48 hours on the App Store.
- iOS 6 adoption goes up 29% after Google Maps hits the App Store.

And there's still some people who will insist that Apple Maps is perfectly fine...

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We had an adoption rate of 200 million devices on iOS 6 in late october (iPad Mini keynote).
If we just say that nobody since that day bought an iPhone 5, iPad Mini, iPad 4 or upgraded their older devices (but we DO know that they sold at least 3 million late 2012 iPads since then), the data from MoPub would show an increase in iOS 6 adoption from 200 million devices to 258 million devices running iOS 6.

So + 58 mio devices.

But only 10 million downloads of Google Maps.

If people waited for the release of Google Maps to upgrade to iOS 6 - why do we have an increase of 58 million new devices on iOS 6, but only 10 mio downloads of Google Maps?

Wouldn't you upgrade your iOS and after that, the first thing to do would be to download GMaps?

"Yeah, finally GMaps available, now i will be able to update my iPhone 4...well...nah, i'll update my iPhone today, but the download of GMaps can wait til next week..."

NOBODY waiting for GMaps and waiting to update iOS would have thoughts like those, they would download GMaps even BEFORE they update their iPhones...

But why would they wait to download GMaps?

Maybe they were never interested in GMaps and only activated an iOS 6 device, because they were Chinese or Brazilian and just bought one...

Or they waited with the upgrade to iOS 6 til GMaps was released, but then played around with Apple Maps and realized, that it not as bad as they were told by the media, negating the need to download GMaps?

Oh - and of course... 10 million installed GMaps with a base of at least 258 million iOS 6 devices (if we translated MoPubs numbers to an increase in the adoption of iOS 6 everywhere) is less than 4 percent of the intended user base.

Hell, even Android 4.1 is used by a higher percentage of all Android users - and Android 4.1s adoption rate sucks in comparison to Apples iOS 6 adoption rate.

till213 said:

Wow! Just wow! The ignorance of certain fanbois is really REALLY huge and unbelievable!

Forgot already that is was ******** Apple who dictated the timing of the publishing of iOS 6 and threw out Google Maps prematurely (the license contract with Google would have lasted over more than a year still - REMEMBER?)?

Click to expand...

IIRC, the contract would expire in summer of next year...

iOS 7 is (if we use the last releases as an indicator) expected in fall 2013.

There would be a gap of at least three months without (Apple-made, the one we had til iOS 6)) Google Maps and without Apple Maps - because thinking that they would release such a major feature in an iOS 6.2 or 6.3 update is ridiculous.

Releasing iOS 7 (including Apple Maps, perhaps with an iPhone 5S) in summer 2013 would also be extremely unlikely, because they would have no real beta period (release of iOS betas is usually at WWDC - in SUMMER!), only 9 months between devices or no NEW iOS with the release of the 5S in september/october, which is not a very clever thing to do, marketing-wise.

benji888 said:

I have to say this: I absolutely LOVE Apple's Maps app. I saw that the new Google maps requires you to sign in to google to use all of it functions, simple things such as bookmarks it will not allow you to do otherwise. **** google. I won't give them a download count. I try to stay away from giving my info. to them just so they can sell it for advertising. (Google is ad-based, Apple is product-based.)

VECTOR graphics is a MAJOR plus! I hated how Google maps used bitmaps and how I had to wait for new bitmaps when zooming (so slow) ...zooming is much faster w/Apple maps. (edit) OH, and, google always covered the road names and numbers when showing your travel route, which I HATED, very annoying. Apple maps shows you the road numbers, that helps (major), but, I would REALLY like it if Apple would take that extra little step and make the route HIGHLIGHTED (transparent) instead of colored in SOLID, so we can see the roads (read the names) we are traveling on (when not using turn by turn).

Not only that, Apple Maps uses LESS data! And it is easier to use, better looking, works better, more options. Some have overreacted to something and blew it WAY out of proportion.

Google maps was never always correct. NOT the perfect maps app. I had issues with it sometimes not finding an address, sometimes putting me on the wrong part of a road, moving the destination pin, or gps jumping around. But it wasn't called a "flawed product"?

Yes, I have tried to get into Yelp, but, not liking it much. HOWEVER, Apple is supposedly talking w/Foursquare and if they integrate Foursquare into Apple Maps it will KILL google maps. Foursquare is an awesome app for finding places when going out of town, local information is there and it is current, and they are making it faster and easier to use. (Yelp seems kind of clunky and incomplete by comparison). I'm sticking with Apple maps, I know it will only get better.

Apple maps seems better to me than it was 3 months ago...they are working on it constantly.

MacRumors: please put something better at the top of your front page other than 3 points about Google Maps.

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Tl;dr