During Apple’s WWDC this week, the company announced a “beautiful redesign” of Apple Maps and opened it up to third-party developers. During the same time last year during WWDC, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said that Apple Maps were being used 3.5 times more than “the next leading mapping app” (I think we all know they were referring to Google Maps, let’s be honest) on the iPhone.
At that time, Apple Maps’ usage over Google Maps on the iPhone was even confirmed by others. Apparently, there are over five billions searches or “requests” on Apple Maps every week.
But, according to a new survey from Fluent, there seems to be a bit of contradiction though, as Fluent argues that Google maps is the favorite mapping app for both Android and iPhones users. Google’s mapping app is the favorite for almost 70 percent of the 2,000 US adult respondents, and Apple Maps gets the nod from only 13 percent of iPhone users.
Is it possible to reconcile the survey finds above with the data Apple and others released about its mapping app being the dominant one for iPhone users? There are three different explanations how:
- The survey data are flawed and don’t represent the market.
- Since last year, Google has regained its audience on the iPhone.
- Apple Maps dominates because it’s the default mapping app.
Now, it is true that the data coming from the survey could be flawed and/or doesn’t represent the market, and that’s a totally reasonable idea. It is just a survey, after all. Since Apple’s claim that more iPhone users are using Apple Maps the most last year, things could have completely changed, as Google Maps could have grown since then. But I think the most reasonable and realistic point is the last one. Apple Maps is the default map app on all Apple devices, so it would make sense that Apple would have a heads up between the mapping apps. Look at Google and the default apps that they have installed on Android devices. It would make sense that those apps get an inflated number for Android.