Surprise! Apple Maps Is a Hit, Google Maps Loses Ground [View all]

[onehandle]

You probably remember the Apple Maps memes that exploded across the Internet when the app was first released as part of iOS6 in September 2012. They were legion: Columbus discovered America because he was looking for India on Apple Maps. Luke Skywalker turned off his targeting computer while attacking the Death Star because it was using Apple Maps. Heard who the Apple Maps development team was? The cast of Lost.

Well, now it looks like Apple is having the last laugh. The Google Maps mobile apps, on both iOS and Android, were used by 81 million people in September 2012. By September 2013, according to ComScore, that number had fallen to 58.7 million. In just one year, Apple Maps has gained 35 million regular users.

The numbers are worse if you look at the iPhone alone, where the aforementioned 35 million Apple Maps users stack up against just 6 million Google Maps users. And a third of those are using the Google Maps app because they haven't or can't upgrade to iOS 6 or 7, according to an analysis by The Guardian.

Yes, you read that right: Apple Maps, for all its history of glitches, errors, broken freeways and missing transit directions, is being used about six times more than Google Maps wherever users have a choice between the two.

http://mashable.com/2013/11/12/apple-maps-google