Comments on: Data showing most people dumping iOS Maps seems legit

By: Pierre

Pierre — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:43:24 +0000

It isn’t just about how much less data Apple Maps use compared to Google Maps in order to complete the same set of lookups all over America. It’s also about how the data is cached and reused in future lookups around the same areas. In the past week, I did a few searches in Palo Alto, San Francisco and New York City, and each time I panned a bit around the immediate area. Now if I switch the phone to Airplane Mode, I can still browse my maps to the highest level of detail not just around the few locations I searched but over the *entire* Bay Area and the *entire* city of New York – and I still get the second highest level of detail over all of California, eastern New York and huge swaths of Nevada, Oregon and New Jersey. Without any data connection! Try that with Google Maps… No wonder people believe the Apple Maps app saw a 25x drop in usage.

By: Glen Raphael

Glen Raphael — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:55:33 +0000

Here in Manhattan, I used to launch the maps app every single time I go to a show or restaurant, because (when it included transit directions) it would tell me which subway lines I should use (in cases where more than one might be appropriate) and exactly when the next trains would arrive so I knew whether I should hurry or could take it easy walking to the subway stop.

Now, there’s no point launching Maps at all for that sort of query – doing so takes a bunch of extra clicks and delay in order to launch some other third-party app which I could just as well just launch directly. I’ve switched to usually launching KICKMaps, an app that doesn’t even *show up* in Apple’s list of available transit apps.

(it’s also a huge pain that the walking map doesn’t show the names of the subway lines that stop at particular subway stations – that factor alone is making me investigate other alternatives)

So my own personal usage profile is consistent with the story of people dumping the Maps app – I use it a small fraction as often as before and might well stop using it altogether.

By: Peter Deep

Peter Deep — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 03:40:20 +0000

No Kevin, sorry, but think about what you are saying. There were more than 100 million iOS 6 downloads. You are saying that 96 million people – 96 MILLION PEOPLE – are refusing to use the Maps app. Think about what you are saying. It’s absurd!

By: Peter Deep

Peter Deep — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 03:31:14 +0000

By: greenlight

greenlight — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:16:23 +0000

“Obviously if you can navigate around a country without a data connection, that phone is NOT contacting Apple Maps”

Obviously if I can read my email in flight mode, the phone is NOT contacting my email server when I open Mail.app.

“Is it possible that the pre-upgrade number is inflated due to interest in the map feature pre-upgrade?”

In what coked-up world do you live in where interest in Maps was higher before iOS 6 was released then after?!?!? If anything the numbers should be way higher now when everyone tests the new version, especially after all the negative publicity. Not to mention more people should be using it now that it has turn-by-turn etc.

By: eas

eas — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:13:18 +0000

Even if their data is “legit,” their interpretation likely isn’t:
http://geekfun.com/2012/10/03/why-snapplis-conclusions-about-ios-6-maps-usage-is-probably-wrong/

By: greenlight

greenlight — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:03:25 +0000

Even if Maps works without data, that says nothing about if Maps will use a data connection if one exists. Maybe it hits the server to check if it needs to update the cache, or to read traffic data, or any other of the little things it may do.

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 23:14:22 +0000

Vera, that’s a good test that proves how much map data is cached. Can you try again, but this time when you turn off your connection, search for something on the map or request directions. I believe both of these activities do request mobile data. Thanks!

By: Vera Comment

Vera Comment — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 23:07:39 +0000

when I read the piece yesterday about the guy who had maps but no network, I decided to do a test. tracked my location all the way to work (about 2 miles on the bus). when I got to the office I turned airplane mode ON – so all my radios were off (iphone 5). I was able to see everything along my route.. including zoom. wander off the tiles I had already downloaded showed nothing. so it appears clear to me that maps works w/o data (i was using vector). I had usable maps, and Snappli would have no idea I was using them.

By: trip1ex

trip1ex — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:59:13 +0000

Yes. Of course. This is overblown. These things always get overblown.

Afaik the street data in Maps is from Tom Tom and presumably in every TomTom GPS in millions of cars around the world. Never heard any outrage about them except for the usual grumbling a associated with every GPS device.