Philip Houska The time when Apple introduced its Maps together with iOS 6 and wanted to compete with Google Maps in particular is long behind us. Apple Maps caught a lot of criticism when it premiered for noticeable inaccuracies in mapping data, a lack of information about the transport system and a strange 3D display.
Due to these defects, many users did not want to update iOS at the time, only after the release of Google maps, the number of updates to the newer operating system increased by almost a third. Three years later, however, the situation is different - Apple revealed that its Maps on iPhones are used by three times more users in the United States than Google Maps.
Apple Maps is used a lot and this is confirmed by the fact that they receive 5 billion requests every week. Company survey comScore showed that the service is only marginally less popular than rival Google Maps in the United States. However, it must be added that comScore focuses more on how many people use Apple Maps in a given month rather than how often.
It's quite possible that maps are used more because they're already pre-built into the iOS core itself, and all functions like Siri, Mail and third-party apps (Yelp) work together perfectly reliably. In addition, new users will no longer face similar issues as they did at launch, so they have no reason to switch to a competitor and can enjoy ever-improved versions. In addition, according to the AP agency, more and more users are returning to solutions from Apple.
While Apple has the upper hand in mapping services on iOS, Google continues to dominate all other smartphones, with twice as many users. In addition, the situation will certainly be different in Europe, where Apple is also constantly improving its data, but in many areas (including places in the Czech Republic) it is still not as close to perfect coverage as Google, whether we are talking about the routes themselves or points of interest.
Apple is always trying to improve Maps. The purchase of companies such as Coherent Navigation (GPS) or Mapsense. Mapping vehicles and the new Transit directions service are also an important step forward, where new elements will soon be created in the form of mapping public transport stops and traffic signs. In the future, users could also use so-called internal mapping. However, American users will have to wait again first.
Apple's map materials for the American territory are comparable to Google maps, unfortunately in Europe and especially the eastern one (uninteresting markets) this is far from the case. Hopefully that will change.
By the way, Filip, great profile :-)
Apple maps in Slovakia are unusable... (inaccurate, incomplete, voice navigation disaster)