Apple’s iOS6 Adopts Google Maps, 10 Million Downloads In Less Than Four Days
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
In less than 4 day’s time, Google Maps for iOS has been downloaded 10 million times. This is news that Jeff Huber, senior vice president of commerce and local at Google is obviously quite proud of. As such, he did what any good Google employee would do to announce such news: He took to Google+.
“We’re excited for the positive reception of Google Maps for iPhone around the world,” writes Huber. “Congratulations to the Maps Team on the recognition for the passion and hard work they poured into it, for this release and over the last 7+ years.”
Google finally released their version of Maps for iOS last week (on 12/12/12 no less) making headlines across a myriad of Web sites and news sources.
Once partners, Apple decided to part ways with Google’s mapping data as they released the latest version of their operating system, iOS 6.
When Apple Maps app was released, many immediately panned the new app. Some of the images were either incomplete or distorted, some locations were incorrect or missing, and public transit information was missing.
Google Maps were never unavailable to these iOS 6 users, however. Maps were still available via the Safari web browser, though some of the functionality, such as Street View, had been missing in the beginning. Those with older devices were able to keep their devices on iOS 5, giving them the same old, familiar Apple and Google maps everyone had grown so accustomed to.
When this new app was released into the app store, it quickly shot up to the top of the Popular charts. In the first hours of its release, so many users had tried to download it that some saw an error message which said the app was no longer available in the App Store. This sparked some rumors that Apple had suddenly decided to pull the app from their store upon seeing its popularity. These rumors were quickly squashed.
The deafening noise of disapproval from Apple’s new Maps in iOS 6 began within hours of its public release. At this point, many users had a choice: They could continue with the upgrade and reap the benefit of all the other advancements in iOS 6, (such as Passbook and FaceTime over their carrier’s network) or stay with iOS 5 just to keep their Google-backed maps.
Some had suggested that Apple Maps were so bad that many were waiting to upgrade until they could get their Google maps back. Last week, TechCrunch published a report saying Apple’s iOS 6 adoption rates could see a surge now that Google Maps is finally available in the App store.
According to this story, adoption rates had flattened out at 60% one month after the launch, suggesting that there were millions just waiting for new maps.
These maps have now been released, but it’s likely those 10 million users who downloaded Google Maps in the first 48 hours were already on iOS 6 or have still to upgrade to Apple’s latest.
According to mobile ad network Chitika, iOS 6 adoption rates have only grown about 0.02% since Google’s maps release.
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2012-12-18 17:20:22
Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112750451/google-maps-ios6-10-million-downloads-121812/
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