Apple Maps finally prevails; used three times more than Google Maps

by Alicia Brown Application Developer

At least on iPhones and iPads. Contrary to popular belief, Apple Maps is not entirely (or even remotely) a failure. When it was launched in 2012, it was panned (and rightly so) for being a case of blind leading the blind; more of a mistake than a map. There were some blatant issues that screamed for help. For instance, maps aren’t supposed to give incorrect directions, of have landmarks mislabeled. Nevertheless, there it was… Apple Maps, in all its erred glory. However, that was way back in 2012. Fast forward three years, and we can safely say that Apple has taken than entire time to correct itself, taking every criticism constructively and turning things around for itself. And the proof is in the pudding.

According to a report in The Boston Globe, iPhone and iPad users have really warmed up to Apple Maps.; so much so that the report states that it is used thrice as much as its “next leading competitor” (real subtle, guys!). Leading market experts like SmartIO and more.The report goes on to say that Apple handles as many as 5 billion (yes, with a B) map-related requests per week. Now if that isn’t impressive, we don’t know what is. Considering how extensively flawed Apple Maps was at the time of its launch, we must admit, the company managed to dig itself out of a pretty deep hole. It’s one thing for iPhone and iPad users to download games, tools and content transfer apps off the App Store, but if a user is willing to download an application for a service that the device is already offering, that is not good sign. Fortunately for Apple that is no longer the case.

Of course, Google Maps is still maintaining the lead in the overall market, considering most of the non-Apple devices are Android-based. One can get a pretty good idea of the situation from the simple fact that in spite of a threefold advantage in the iOS-device segment, Google Maps has twice as many users as Apple Maps.

So who can we credit for the impressive numbers crunched out by Apple Maps? Surely the engineering team wasn’t completely scrapped, nor is it likely that it immediately knew all the answers (that would make it the team of most improved developers in app dev history). One of the major reasons for this is being credited to the fact that the application has been fluidly integrated with third-party apps.