iOS 6 adoption uptick due to China iPhone 5 launch, not the release of Google Maps app

“Ad network and analytics firm Chitika claims it has seen no significant increase in iOS 6 adoption in the U.S. and Canada,” Jordan Golson reports for MacRumors. “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.”

Golson reports, “Chitika’s data — which only looks at data from the U.S. and Canada, rather than the international data that MoPub examined — [shows] the iOS 6 adoption slope following the release of Google Maps for iOS remains practically unchanged from before the release, suggesting that suggesting a sea change in iOS 6 adoption rates resulting from Google Maps release is inaccurate.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Almost always being right when it comes to Apple is a curse we’ll have to bear:

Bzzt! This fails our logic sensors. It’s a bit too much for us to believe that so many users would hold off on all of the iOS 6 goodies simply due to a whole bunch of Maps FUD (some issues, yes, but 95% of the debacle was concocted FUD amplified beyond recognition in the Internet echo chamber).

Logically, you’d think that if these maps addicts were savvy enough to hold off on a major iOS upgrade over some perceived issue, they’d easily have had the fortitude to simply visit Google Maps via Safari, tap “Add to Home Screen,” and then proceed to update iOS as usual. For that reason alone, we’re not buying it.MacDailyNews, commenting on the idea that the release of Google Maps for iPhone was the impetus behind the iOS 6 surge shown in MoPub’s data, December 19, 2012/blockquote>

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Mobile ad exchange claims Google Maps release triggers 29% surge in iOS 6 adoption – December 19, 2012
iOS 6 adoption after Google Maps release stays flat, any negative impact of Apple Maps highly exaggerated – December 15, 2012

16 Comments

  1. I have a saying I follow religiously… Believe none of what you hear and less of what you read from a source of one. It has kept me informed as correctly as possible … I require a minimum of 5 credible sources (those that have been proven correct in the past) before I will even consider their info credible….,question everything.

  2. Some people are unclear about cause and effect. They could have just as easily come to the conclusion that the uptick in IOS6 installs was due to concern over the end of the world on Dec 21.

  3. Google Maps makes a big difference when u live in one of the Chinese cities that has 400 bus lines. I know lot of people that only now updated. There was a note sent several months ago by Unicom reminding, if you depend on maps it might not be a good idea to update to iOS6. The Chinese like to eat out a lot and use Groupon etc. discounts which require you to figure out how to find the place. Missing the bus and walk info is the same as missing the map. Luckily Apple’s maps are more accurate so not everything is lost.

  4. No MDN. People who are savvy enough to know how to add Google as a home screen are also savvy enough to know that Google maps via Safari is NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS YOUR CONTACTS. Because I refuse to accept this DOWNGRADE of my user experience caused by Apple’s incompetance I WILL NOT “proceed to update iOS as usual.”

    1. Your message comes across as either arrogant, or uninformed. To give you the benefit of the doubt, we may want to assume it is uninformed.

      You have no reason to be annoyed at Apple for “downgrading your user experience”. Their hand was forced by Google and their blackmailing action. You see, when Google did a deal with Apple, they built a simple maps app for iOS and let Apple bundle with with the iOS. The app had no advertising, but it allowed Google’s mapping data into the iOS, together with Google’s content links (to places, businesses, etc), which did drive some traffic to Google’s web properties (monetizing the app indirectly for Google). However, Google refused to update that up to match the feature set they delivered on their own Android platform. Google withheld prime user experience from iOS users, and Apple was getting increasingly annoyed. When the maps app license came up for re-negotiation, Apple simply declined and proceeded to build a mapping app from scratch, in order to deliver user experience that would be significantly better than previous Google offering (turn-by-turn directions being the most important one). Apple essentially had no choice. Once Apple made that choice, Google suddenly lost all indirect traffic that was coming from iOS users (some 200 million of them). They quickly realised that the platform such as iOS is prime real estate for their maps app, so they quickly developed a complete, proper version of it; the kind of version that Apple had been asking for all along, and Google refused to deliver before. Obviously, Google is ultimately the loser here, as their app is no longer bundled, and users must look to download it manually (how many will be doing this realistically?). For iOS users, there are few shortcomings to this new solution (lack of integration with contacts for one, as well as the infusion of advertising banners, where there were none previously). Still, the option is finally there the way it should have been.

      Therefore, your anger towards Apple is misplaced; you should be angry at Google for deliberately withholding the user experience from iOS users for five years.

      As far as your decision to upgrade is concerned, it will only depend on whether the benefits of iOS 6 (which there are plenty) over iOS5 are greater than the lack of integration of contacts (in Google maps), or lack of StreetView (in Apple’s maps), which is essentially are the biggest gripes about the two.

    2. Yeah…what Predrag wrote! And remember, Adobe got the same kind of “don’t let the door knob hit you in the ass kicking” when they refused Steve’s request for application support back in 97.

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