Google Maps 'spurs iOS 6 upgrades'

Upgrades to Apple's iOS 6 operating system increased by 29 per cent this weekend following the availability of Google Maps, it has been claimed.

The Apple iPhone 5

Adoption of iOS 6 increased by around 13 per cent last week but there was a bigger increase at the weekend, says mobile advertising service MoPub.

MoPub monitors 12,000 iOS apps and says that the percentage of users running those apps on iOS 6 increased by 29 per cent in the five days after Google released Google Maps for iPhone.

Google had provided the default maps application for Apple's iPhone since the device first went on sale in 2007. However, the release of iOS 6 in September saw Apple replace Google Maps with its own maps app.

Apple Maps was quickly revealed to be unreliable, filled with errors and omissions and Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook, was forced to issue an apology.

Last week, Google released Google Maps for iOS, which the search company says was downloaded 10 million times in the first 48 hours. The app immediately went to the top of the iTunes charts.

Jim Payne, chief executive of MoPub, told TechCrunch that he believed the increase in iOS 6 users suggested that many people had held off upgrading to the latest version of the operating system so that they could carry on using Google Maps.

He said: " It verifies the hypothesis that people were actually holding back to upgrade until Google Maps was available."

According to reports, Apple has been holding talks with various companies in a bid to improve its mapping data. The Wall Street Journal said Apple had talked to Foursquare, the location-based 'check in' service, about sharing the business listings and user-generated tips that Foursquare has accumulated.