“According to ComScore’s European data, in the UK in October 2012 Google Maps usage on iPhone was 6.07m users – against no measurable number for Apple’s Maps app,” Charles Arthur reports for The Guardian.
“In October 2012, ComScore’s separate data, collected from its statistically robust panel of owners, shows that there were 8.57m iPhone owners in the UK – which would mean that 70.8% of owners used the maps app, which would be Google’s, at some point,” Arthur reports. “But by September 2013, total use of Google Maps had dropped to 1.83m UK iPhone users even though the total ownership had grown to 10.35m. Apple Maps users, meanwhile, totalled 6.23m, or 60.2% of all users.”
“There’s no way to tell how many of the Google Maps users deployed it exclusively, nor how many carried on using it because they were still using phones running the older iOS 5, which cannot use Apple Maps,” Arthur reports. “Even so, it suggests a dramatic drop in the number of Google Maps users on the iPhone – by 4.24m, or 70% – which mirrors that in the US.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote on August 8, 2011:
Google will rue the day they decided to get greedy by working against Apple instead of with them.
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Wish I could say the same, because apple
Maps in London and UK is lacking, google maps ATM is better unfortunately
That’s quite the opposite of my experience. I live in the UK and have used both, but now use Apple Maps far more than Google. I often need to get to places on a tight schedule and I find that Apple maps does a much better job of guiding me there than either Google maps, or my dedicated TomTom sat nav.
I particularly like the live traffic information on Apple Maps, which gives more information about what is causing a slow down in the traffic, it’s a vast improvement over Google or TomTom’s efforts.
I’m in the uk and almost exclusively use Apple Maps for navigation. Brilliant.
Has a way to go on data though – the coffee shop opersite our house is now 1/2 mile away, and the hotel in the village has disappeared! Oh well…
I did not know Snoop Dogg was now working for Google in their Desperate PR Lies Dept..
Revenge, thy taste is sweet.
I believe it’s “Thine taste is sweet”. You gotta brush up on your Old English-dawg. 🙂 And I do agree, it’s rather tasty.
Apple maps in my area have the shops listed all wrong and even when I reported the errors and corrected them in my iPad the mistakes still there after more the a year
Not sure where you live, your comment might have been more helpful had you mentioned that. You got voted down for a helpful comment but it could have been more helpful.
Eric Schdmit is the ultimate Evil. Google is only his play dough, while Larry and Brin his tools.
He’s no longer CEO.
I’m in the UK and Apple Maps rocks.
Google maps just sucks and blows like a Hoover.
Apple maps all the way baby!
It just goes to show that the majority of iPhone users don’t understand what they are using.
They just click on the ‘maps’ app and use it – and so they should.
They don’t understand that they are now using a new app that doesn’t send their location back to Google, for Google to then sell that info to advertisers.
Google must be very worried – what this demonstrates is that Google’s revenues and success are not through consumer’s making a knowledgable and researched choice, rather their revenues and success are based on fooling & exploiting the people that use their services.
Exactly who wants to go out of their way to use another software product that isn’t native to the device? It’s sort of how Microsoft got IE to beat Netscape but in that case it was blatantly evil especially as is typical Microsoft was asleep to the rise of the Internet. Not so on a smart phone where each manufacturer is allowed certain essential built-in apps. I LOVE Apple Maps even though they have yet to map some new areas I occasionally go to. Even Google’s map info is incomplete there near San Diego.
Exactly, the last thing I want is Google tracking everywhere I go. This is really bad news for them. I don’t use Google search either. Deny them the privilege at every turn. They have abused their power and now they must pay the price.
Apple now needs to lunch an integrated web service site that has search, maps, news, and iTunes Radio as it main features. Then all iPhone users will never have any reason to visit Google web properties. Google will then start to slowly crush and burn. Bring it on Apple.
Crash and burn I think you mean.
Based on these percentages of users switching to Apple Maps I think it would be advantageous for Apple to create its own search engine and I’d be willing to bet if it was even halfway decent, Apple could put quite a dent in Google’s search and ad revenue. I don’t think it would be that hard for Apple to find a search engine acquisition and enhance it. I’d say Apple is passing up a great opportunity to give Google some payback.
I’d be shocked if Apple were able to get into search via acquisition. Apple doesn’t have the political connections of GE, Google, Boeing, etal. An acquisition into a new tranche of business would be dealt with sever govt. interference.
It’s a long shot, but Microsoft’s Bing search engine might be spun off by their new CEO (when they find one). Apple could buy it.
Revenge should NEVER be a motivation for making decisions and I don’t believe it is not how Apple works. The only reason or getting into a market is because you have a burning desire to produce a great product that others are not, and you believe you can compete.
If revenge is a byproduct, then you can smile.
Good! Now I want Apple to create a kick ass search engine.
Payback’s a bitch!
Just got back from a road trip between Michigan and South Carolina. Used Apple Maps the whole time. In all honesty it’s correct about 70% of the time. Several times it sent me to wrong locations for businesses no longer there, and in the road trip directions it several times got Exit numbers wrong or said, “… toward Xburg” when the direction of that town was actually the wrong way, though it told me to turn the right direction.
I’m looking forward to the day when this product is as good as Google Maps. Until then I will continue using it and sending in corrections, as I always do for incorrect locations. I just don’t want Google knowing where I am all the time. I trust Apple a 1000% more than Big Brother.
best comment so far.
@Heard Instinct: While I completely agree with your enthusiasm regarding Apple Maps, I don’t understand your assessment that it was right just “70%” of the time. I just completed a 17 day, 2,750 mile trip along the east coast, including three days in New York City and Apple Maps *never* steered me wrong.
Were you just spectacularly unlucky?
I truly envy those who are able to use Apple maps without problems. I definitely can’t yet, as it is wrong too often to make it reliable. Most of the time, I really make an effort to use it, in order to bring all the usage and any possible feedback data back to Apple (for improvement), but there are frequent occasions when I just simply can’t go around juggling two map applications (Apple AND Google), in order to get somewhere, so I just give up on Apple and switch to Google.
Let us not forget; an entire country of Serbia is one big massive black hole for Apple maps. Because the country currently has no official carrier selling iPhones (although there are a million or two active devices in the country, registered to iTunes stores of neighbouring countries), the Apple maps team apparently believe that mapping Serbia is not a worthwhile effort, so all they hve there is main international highways. Meanwhile, Google has every city, town, village, hamlet, dirt road, lake, pond, and most major and not-so-major features and landmarks. Apparently, Google Maps even has street names in North Korea, where mobile telephony isn’t even available to the regular population!
Apple is doing great work of improving Maps, but Google still provides far more detail and, on average, better accuracy.
Fried chicken consumption goes up 1000% at KFC!
With five years’ lead development time, I should hope so.
Don’t give up your personal responsibility or give away your free will to a digital device.
Anybody who has gotten lost more than one time using either Apple or Google maps has not learned from their first experience. I always review the entire recommended route ahead of time to give it a sanity check … or to allow me to choose alternate routes … such as scenic drives.
As for businesses being closed … I don’t blame the map app. Call the business ahead of time to see if it is open and to confirm location/directions. That’s why it is called a PHONE.
Okat now stop it, you’re making waaaay too much common sense. 🙂
I’m in Manchester UK and unfortunately I still find myself launching Google maps when Apple maps lets me down. It just has far less businesses and is scattered with out of date business information. It’s unforgiving of the slightest typo. It’s a shame because it’s so much nicer to use; at least it is noticeably improving albeit slowly.
When a Windows user sticks with the default browser, certain non-circumspect Apple fans hurl insults at them with religious zeal.
When the iOS user sticks with the default browser, map, email client, etc, then the same Apple fans declare this as proof that Apple must be superior in all aspects.
Maps, in particular, is sorely lacking in many ways, and in many geographical areas. It would be wise not to brag about how brilliant all iOS users are, when most of them have never even evaluated competing software either.
i have been using apple maps a lot lately: i’m transitioning from driving a car to utilizing public transit (ontario city of west of toronto) and am finding maps very efficacious. i am one of those people who can get lost on the way home from work, so, maps is a trusted friend.
recently i was looking for two separate addresses on the outskirts of oakville at 3:30 a.m. and successfully relied on maps to give turn-by-turn directions to my destinations.
i am not exactly brilliant but i am wise enough to choose apple whenever possible and to avoid google at all costs.