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iOS 6 Adoption Rates Soar Following Google Maps Release
redletterdave writes "The Dec. 12 reinstatement of Google Maps on iOS has apparently been enough for some of those reluctant users to finally make the upgrade to iOS 6. According to MoPub, the San Francisco-based mobile ad exchange that monitors more than 1 billion ad impressions a day and supports more than a dozen ad networks and 12,000 apps, there has been a 29 percent increase in unique iOS 6 users in the past five days following Google Maps' release on iOS. In fact, MoPub reports a 13 percent increase in iOS 6 users from last Monday to Wednesday alone, which would mean that nearly half of the converts to iOS 6 in the past week switched the very moment Google Maps' standalone app hit the App Store."
Now how about getting the version for iPads too?
Does this take into account the fact that the iPhone was released in China last weekend and may have caused a spike?
Ummm no it didn't. It was because of the iPhone being released in China. Check Macrumors (where I saw the original and correction).
I do tend to wonder, if Google Maps is so pivotal to the widespread adoption of iOS 6, would we begin to see a lot of people moving toward Android phones if Google removed their maps from the iOS App Store?
We might, but Google is under significant anti-trust scrutiny so I doubt they would actually try it. I also doubt that it would be in Google's interest. Google doesn't make much (if anything) off of Android. Its purpose is to funnel mobile users to Google services like Google Maps.
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/12/20/ios-6-adoption-uptick-due-to-iphone-5-release-in-china-not-google-maps/ Ad network and analytics firm Chitika claims it has seen no significant increase in iOS 6 adoption in the U.S. and Canada. A company analyst believes the MoPub data (which was international, rather than domestic) we wrote about earlier today was affected by the recent launch of the iPhone 5 in China, rather than the release of Google Maps. This past weekend, Apple issued a press release bragging that it had sold more than two million iPhone 5 units in China over the first three days of availability.
I'm impressed with this news too, since it made it to the front page of /. even though it's completely wrong.
Also, many people in the US might be waiting for their contracts to expire before moving to an Android phone from the iPhone. I'm taking a wild guess and I'm obviously biased because I happen to be one of those people, but I can't be the only one. I'm also looking to switch providers and paying $350 to do so before my contract is up is unappetizing to me. So, maybe you'll see a more drawn-out move to Android in the next year or so. Who knows? I can only speak for myself, and that's what I'm doing - was considering it for a while and the Apple Maps fiasco was really the last straw.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
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General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc strikes again.
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Would we begin to see a lot of people moving toward Android phones if Google removed their maps from the iOS App Store?
The funny thing is that at the highest levels, Google and Apple really do not care about each other the way the fans at the lowest level seem to.
Google just wants to make great data driven apps that in turn drive a lot of data their way. If Android falters they will shrug and simply keep producing apps for the leading platforms. Obviously they would prefer Android to keep doing well because they collect more data that way.
Apple just wants to make and sell hardware as well made as they can, continuing down the road of integrating software and hardware to the greatest degree possible. They are happy to have well executed applications run on iOS; after all, it moves more hardware. It was pretty funny to watch people speculate on Slashdot that Google Maps would be blocked from the App Store when there were so many other mapping apps on the store already, and obviously Apple wants good applications because they help sell iOS devices.
So Google would not pull Google Maps from the App Store because it helps them, and Apple will not block it because it helps them.
But even if for some reason Google went nuts I don't think it would affect iOS much, there are too many other high quality mapping solutions already (including Apple's own maps).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
public transit directions are absolutely critical for me on a smartphone
If you really feel that way, you will be far better served using iOS going forward.
I have used Google Transit a LOT over the years. When you use it in multiple cities, or for a long time every day, you grow to realize that the data it's giving you is mediocre. Yes it generally works but it's often out of touch with the way buses are really running, and if you investigate where the data comes from it's all static files updated infrequently by the metro companies in each city.
A third party app can cover cities much better, integrating more deeply into the existing metro data stream. There's already an app for iOS called simply Transit (careful, more than one exist) that seems to have the same coverage Google Transit does, and has better presentation of transit data than Google. You not only get a list of possible transit combinations with stops and walking, but it also adds extra details like "this one is slower but has less walking". When scrolling through the segments of the selected route Transit does a great job of showing the route on the map, giving you the estimated departure and arrival times for the bus picking you up and dropping you off.
So already iOS users get better transit directions than Google Maps gives you, and the transit situation on iOS will only get better as time goes by. With Apple directing people to third party apps there is a TON of motivation to build a really good custom metro app for every city because customers will be herded right to your app outside the crowded app store.
It's funny that so many people talk about how Apple should allow you to chose a browser or mail client (which would be useful) but then claim it's pointless or unnecessary to have a map where you can chose the best application to give you transit directions. Why should that area be immune from letting third parties do a better job, especially when it's just not possible to do the best job for every city across the globe?
Especially combined with the trick of asking Siri "Take me to *LocationX* via transit" you have simple one-click transit routing to anywhere quickly and with the best transit directions you can get.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's funny that so many people talk about how Apple should allow you to chose a browser or mail client (which would be useful) but then claim it's pointless or unnecessary to have a map where you can chose the best application to give you transit directions. Why should that area be immune from letting third parties do a better job, especially when it's just not possible to do the best job for every city across the globe?
Unlike Apple, Google doesn't block third party apps that compete with its own services and there *are* third party mapping programs on Android.
Unlike Apple, Google doesn't block third party apps that compete with its own services
Apple doesn't do that any more either. There are scores of map, mail and browser apps in the App Store.
They may be limiting the number of fart apps, a great loss to the market I'm sure.
there *are* third party mapping programs on Android.M
And they will suck utterly compared to the third party transit apps on iOS, because they are lost in the middle of all the other applications. With Google providing you mediocre transit data in Maps and not showing you better alternatives, how many people will search out transit apps?
Meanwhile Apple directs users in a geographic region (city) to specific applications that can help them. That means as an app developer you are far more likely to earn back the cost of developing a great transit app even for a medium sized metro area.
We have seen a huge increase in the quality of metro apps on iOS in just a matter of months, exactly because of this effect. This effect will multiply rapidly on iOS while on Android very few developers will bother to try and compete against Google on transit.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My iDevice was running the least-outdated version of iOS 4 and not being too bothered about these things I never got round to updating it. Also, I was a bit leery about installing a new major release until the early adopters had suffered through the kinks. The release of the Google map app, which requires iOS 5.something or later was enough reason to finally upgrade.
ummm....no it doesn't.
And why would someone smart enough to read street signs be low on fuel in a remote region?
Well, to state the obvious, because you were looking for the 70km misplaced town with the only gas station for miles around.
Again, it's more about the possible number of people impacted.
No, it's about the danger. Lost with no fuel and water in a desert, potentially all occupants dead. Inconvenienced by a one way road when you see the sign, a spat with the spouse. Although depending on the intensity of the argument, maybe one death...