Despite the huge amount of criticism (mostly from media outlets) surrounding Apple’s iOS 6 Maps app, new data from ChangeWave reveals that iOS 6 Maps issues have had absolutely no measurable effect on iPhone 5 sales demand.
“Despite the media attention surrounding both the Apple Maps issue and the Apple Lightning port issue, neither has had an impact on the massive numbers of buyers queuing up to buy the iPhone 5,” said Dr. Paul Carton, ChangeWave’s VP of Research. “Rather, the survey results show both issues hardly rank as bumps in the road.”
The research involved a survey of 4,270 North American consumers, finding that 31% of respondents are at least somewhat likely to purchase an iPhone 5. By contrast, a similar survey conducted last year showed that only 21.5% of users were interested in upgrading to the 5th-generation iPhone.
This follows a previous consumer survey showing that most consumers don’t have any probleme with the iOS 6 Maps app. To make a long story short: iOS 6 Maps has issues, sure. But it still works fine for the majority of users, and Apple is quickly working to fix issues as they are reported.
Not too bad for a Maps platform less than a year old! I wonder how fantastic Google Maps was after its first year of operation? Probably not much better…