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."

No it didnt

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm no it didn't. It was because of the iPhone being released in China. Check Macrumors (where I saw the original and correction).

It's from China

[mdaitc]

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/12/20/ios-6-adoption-uptick-due-to-iphone-5-release-in-china-not-google-maps/ [macrumors.com] 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.

Re:China

[adamstew]

This article from an iOS advertising platform company pretty much confirms that: http://insights.chitika.com/2012/ios-6-adoption-post-google-maps/ [chitika.com]

Basically, when google maps was released for iOS 6, their data shows that it had no immediate impact on iOS 6 adoption and continued to have no impact for 5 days afterwards. Once the iPhone 5 was released in China, then there was a nice little spike in iOS 6 usage.

Basically, if you look at it week-by-week, it could look like Google Maps caused a spike in iOS 6 adoption, but when you look at it day-by-day it tells a different story.

Re:No it didnt

[tverbeek]

Yep, already discredited: http://insights.chitika.com/2012/ios-6-adoption-post-google-maps/ [chitika.com]

They exist but are lost

[SuperKendall]

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.

Re:Why would Google care?

[sdsucks]

Apple doesn't let you run your own OS on their hardware. They make it as hard as possible to run Windows on a Mac, they've been caught trying to prevent Linux from overtaking the boot loader.

That is a complete lie. Why are you spreading FUD?

Running Windows on a Macbook is extremely easy, and actually fully supported by Apple. Yes, they *SUPPORT* this - providing the best hardware driver install and update infrastructure I have ever seen in windows. Seriously - I only own high end laptops whether they are Apple or "PC", and running Windows on a Macbook is more pleasant than any Lenovo, HP, etc I've owned.

See: Bootcamp: http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ [apple.com]

Regarding Linux - You do need to be aware that Macbooks use EFI, but installing Linux on a Macbook is trivial. I only ever run linux in VM's these days. Why bother running Linux when I have a fully POSIX compliant operating system already running natively? ( FWIW I am no stranger to linux. In a past life I was an *NIX server admin, with many years experience.)

I've been running both Windows and Linux on Macbooks for over 5 years, and they both work just fine. So now, will you explain your lies?

Re:Why would Google care?

[jo_ham]

Apple just wants to make and sell hardware as well made as they can

This falls apart when you consider that Apple doesn't let you run your own OS on their hardware. They make it as hard as possible to run Windows on a Mac, they've been caught trying to prevent Linux from overtaking the bootloader. You cant run anything except IOS on an Ipod, Ipad or Iphone desipte it being the exact same hardware that runs Android and Windows Phone8/RT.

No, Apple wants you locked into their ecosystem. Why?

Because they make more money from you that way.

there are too many other high quality mapping solutions already (including Apple's own maps).

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha,

Don't give up your day job. When Apple cant even put train stations on train lines, you cant call it quality.

I see you've never used a Mac before, but don't worry - you're not the only one spouting such hilariously cute ignorance.

Installing Windows on a Mac features these "extremely difficult" steps:

1. Buy Windows (DVD or iso direct from Microsoft)

2. Run Bootcamp Assistant

* this partitions your HD (even your boot drive, changing the partition size as needed) to the sizes you choose.
* it also downloads all the drivers you need for Mac hardware.
* it then makes a bootable USB windows installer disk and includes all those drivers and software tools (you can choose to make a bootable DVD if you like)

3. Reboot Mac with this USB stick connected.

4. Install Windows

5. Run software package on USB to install all the drivers.

If you think that is "making it as hard as possible", then I am wondering if you have velcro shoes, because laces must be a total mystery to you.

Have I rationally rebutted your argument enough to call you a hater yet?

Re:China

[AlecC]

I would guess you are in the US, where it isn't that bad. Near me, in the well populated southern UK, it has lost one and displaced one of the significant towns in my immediate area - places I frequently visit. The latter is the place I nominally live - where I pay my local taxes. Obviously, because I know my own patch pretty well, I don't need to map these places. But it means my confidence in it mapping a place I don't know is essentially zero,

Re:They exist but are lost

[samoanbiscuit]

No actually, Chrome on iOS uses a slower (and less powerful) version of the webkit engine than Safari does. More specifically, Chrome on iOS is blocked from using the Nitro javascript engine that Safari has access to, and is not allowed to use it's own javascript JIT compiler, due to Apple's guidelines. So no, Chrome on iOS is a shadow of it's form on other platforms. This basically means that Safari remains by design, and not by chance, the best and most performant browser on iOS.

Re:China

[AlecC]

Yes, Marlborough still gone, replaced by Ogbourn St Andrew, a tiny village nearby, and Basingstoke has moved six miles west to the approximate location of Watership Down.Searching for Crawley takes you to the hamlet in Hampshire not the major town by Gatwick Airport, and searching for Crawley, Sussex finds some sort of health club in Burgess Hill, twenty miles away. They did manage quite quickly to remove Burghclere Station, closed in 1960 and now buried under the Newbury Bypass (after putting it very conveniently close to my home, instead of two miles, where it actually had been).