{"id":103496,"date":"2012-09-25T01:29:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T06:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/apple-breaks-up-with-google-maps-2\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:42:05","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:42:05","slug":"apple-breaks-up-with-google-maps-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/local-search\/apple-breaks-up-with-google-maps-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Apple\u2019s Move Away from Google Maps is a Big Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

By now most of us have heard the story of late Apple founder Steve Jobs declaring “thermonuclear war”<\/a> on Google’s Android operating system. That war, it seems, is in full effect on multiple fronts. Of course, there is Apple’s recent patent infringement victory over Samsung in court (a decision that could have multi-billion dollar implications), and now, with the release of iOS 6, Apple has effectively dumped Google Maps from the iPhone. While the narrative has largely become the multitude of problems that the new Apple maps application is causing for users<\/a> (take a look here<\/a> for some fun observations on that), the story of the shift away from Google Maps itself is a big deal.<\/p>\n

We’ll get to some of the numbers in a minute, but first, let’s consider the statement this move makes. The use of Google Maps has been central to the operation of the iPhone since its inception five years ago. You’ll no doubt remember those iconic iPhone commercials <\/a>that showed how elegantly you could find information with this magical new device. Those spots included a whole lot of air time for the Google Maps application that came loaded on the phone. Now, not only has Apple replaced Google Maps with its own as the default, users can’t even download and use the Google Maps application after upgrading to iOS 6.<\/p>\n

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Now, you may say that Google is still well-positioned because of the Android operating system’s 68% worldwide share<\/a> of the smartphone market, compared to just 17% for the iPhone. Think again. While Android may have a majority market share in terms of the number of smartphones on the market, Apple enjoys a 66% share of total mobile web browsing<\/a> (this includes tablet, where the market share for Apple’s iPad is beyond dominant). This means that the majority of mobile web browsing is happening within iOS, and that means trouble for Google Maps.<\/p>\n

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