Apple devices upgraded to iOS 6 spike 29% after Google Maps release

A company that serves up advertisements for thousands of Apple mobile apps has seen a 29% jump in the number of devices running iOS 6 since the release of Google Maps for the iPhone.

As you may recall, iPhone users that updated their devices to the iOS 6 operating system in September were stuck with an Apple Maps app rather than Google Maps, which came with previous versions of the iOS. Many complained that Apple’s map app was inferior to Google’s, leading to an apology from Apple’s CEO Tim Cook.

Because of the map fiasco, a number of iPhone users refused to upgrade to the iOS 6 and instead kept the older iOS 5 that had Google Maps as a pre-installed app.

Last week, Google released Google Maps for the iPhone, and that appears to have spurred those holding out to finally upgrade to iOS 6.

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MoPub, which claims to be the world’s largest mobile ad exchange and receives 1 billion impressions daily, said it saw a 6% increase in unique iOS 6 devices Dec. 12, the night Google Maps was added to the Apple App Store. That number jumped up to 29% by Saturday.

Elain Szu, director of marketing for MoPub, said the company expected there to be a spike in unique iOS 6 devices. She said they’d heard anecdotal evidence from MoPub’s developer clients that some users were holding onto iOS 5 because of the absence of Google Maps on iOS 6.

“We thought that unique users were gonna really increase when Google Maps was available,” she said.

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