Apple’s new Maps app launched to much fanfare, but little critical acclaim alongside iOS 6.
Despite numerous reports into the myriad of failings of Maps (mostly arround innacurate data) Apple's customers seem to be sticking with the service.
Apple's CEO Tim Cook issued an apology, and suggested that customers try using rival mapping services on iOS devices while Apple improves its own offering. These rival services include Waze, a crowd-sourced map system, Bing maps, and online offerings from Google and Nokia.
But tech site CNET reports show that few customers are moving away from Apple’s built-in Maps app towards these alternatives.
AppShopper, which tracks app positions, reports that Waze (a community-based maps inititative) initially made it to the top 20 spot but has since fallen to 36 and seems to be heading down in popularity. Waze claims more than 20 million users worldwide (how many of these are active users remains debatable)
Bing, meanwhile, rose to 72 but then fell back out of the top 250.
It’s harder to track any increase in popularity for Google and Nokia maps, however, as these both use web services. This is compounded by the fact that Google Maps is what many Apple customers will be looking to replace. However, it seems that many users will stick with the built-in Apple Maps app, warts and all, for the convenience factor.
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gkinchina said on Fri, 05 Oct 2012
Apple must provide a simple way for people to downgrade or revert to IOS5 Maps or IOS5 - both of which have been blocked by Apple. Millions of users who blindly upgraded and now want to go back to what they had paid for, are now stuck without a downgrade path. Many think it is illegal for Apple to not allow their users to revert to IOS5. The problem is a 100 times worse outside the USA, where Apple Maps data is very poor.
Unfortunately, most of us Apple users followed the 'nag' screen and upgraded to IOS6. When a free update is available to Microsoft Office etc., almost everyone updates. Is it not illegal for Apple to block the capability to revert to IOS5?
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