Apple Maps vs Google Maps is often a heated debate with smartphone users and which map application is preferred by users has fluctuated over the years.
Earlier this week at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced a beautiful redesign of their maps and opened the app up to third party developers. Just last year at the same event Apple CEO Tim Cook commented that Apple Maps were being used 3.5 times more than Google Maps by iPhone users. And at the time, Apple’s dominance of Google, when it came to maps, was confirmed by others with a reported five billion weekly searches on Apple Maps.
But recently a new survey has come out that seems to contradict all of this. This new survey done by Fluent of over 2,000 US adults argues that Google Maps is the clear favorite for both Android and iPhone users, with nearly 70% of the vote. This survey has Google Maps emerging as the clear winner with not only 70% of the overall vote but 69% among iPhone users alone and a whopping 78% among Android users.
What could be the cause for such drastic changes in just a year? There are a few options, first, the survey data could be flawed and not represent the entire market, second in just a year Google has regained its audience on iPhones or third, Apple Maps has only dominated due to its default placement on iOS devices. Whatever the reason it is striking to see the gap between Google Maps and Apples Maps through this data, with Google Maps emerging as the clear winner.