Chitika: recent iOS 6 adoption spike due to China iPhone 5 launch

google maps screenshot

Earlier this week, a report surfaced from MoPub, a mobile ad serving platform, suggesting that the recent release of Google Maps caused a 30% spike in iOS 6 user adoption. And of course, it made sense that some folks were holding out on updating until they were sure they’d have a proper Maps app.

But what didn’t make sense was how far off MoPub’s findings were from Chitika’s. You see Chitika, another large ad network, also looked at iOS 6 user adoption after the Google Maps release, and it only saw a 0.2% bump. So why the huge discrepancy? It likely has to do with the firms’ coverage areas…

Chitika suggests that the difference between the two reports could very well have something to do with their respective coverage areas. MoPub, for example, pulls its data from a global ad network. Chitika’s study, however, only covers devices that are currently active in the United States and Canada.

What does all this have to do with iOS 6 adoption? Well remember, the iPhone 5 launched in 30+ countries last week — one of them being China, which saw iPhone 5 sales of 2+ million during opening weekend. And I’ll give you one guess what firmware came pre-installed on all of those iPhone 5s. Yup, iOS 6.

So with that in mind, Chitika stands by its original report — that the Google Maps release didn’t really affect iOS 6 user adoption. It even took a new, longer-term look at its iOS device impression data in the US, and found that between December 11 and December 17, iOS 6 impressions were, again, fairly flat.

Now, all of this may not mean much out of context. But it does let the air out of the tires of what seems to be a popular theory bouncing around the web that millions of users came running to iOS 6 once the Google Maps app arrived. It made for a nice story, but clearly, that just wasn’t the case.

Chitika 1 MoPub 0.

[TechCrunch]