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Apple Maps a success in the US, used by 35 million iPhone owners: Report

Apple Maps a success in the US, used by 35 million iPhone owners: Report

By Anupam Saxena | Updated: 12 November 2013 11:33 IST

A thousand memes have been created in honour of Apple's Maps, and how they'll help you reach anywhere but your destination.

However, according to a new report, Apple Maps have been a huge success on iOS devices like the iPad and iPhone, with Google Maps losing out as a result of the Cupertino giant kicked it out, at least in the US.

Google has in fact, lost 23 million mobile users in the US according to a report by The Guardian that cites comScore numbers as source for the information. Last year, in September, Google Maps had 81 million users according to the data compiled by the firm.

In September 2013, 35 million iPhone owners in the US used Apple's maps during September 2013, compared to 58.7 million Google Maps users across the iPhone and Android, in the US. Out of the total, 6 million Google Maps users are using them on the iPhone including users who did not upgrade to iOS 6, which removed Google Maps, according to the report.

Google had started offering a stand-alone Maps app with online turn by turn navigation, a few months after Apple introduced its own maps and removed Google's Maps as the default Maps app from iOS.

The report expects that the usage pattern would be similar in Europe, though data for the continent was not available.

Earlier this year, Apple had introduced a new search API allowing developers to offer map-based addresses (location) and points of interest (POI) through Apple's maps servers, within their own apps, enabling them to build local search apps around Apple's maps. Perhaps, this could also be a factor contributing to the increased usage.

Google launched its iOS maps app in December 2012 and the app was downloaded over 10 million times in the first 48 hours of its going live on the App Store. The release came just months after Apple removed Google Maps as Google did not offer native turn by turn capability, and wanted to collect more user data.

Apple maps were panned for being less detailed than Google's and at other times for being flat-out wrong.

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