Consumers dismiss Apple Maps uproar; plan to buy iPhone 5 in record numbers

14.10.2012
The brouhaha over Apple replacing Google Maps in iOS 6 with its own mapping and navigation technology has not changed customers' minds about the iPhone 5, according to a ChangeWave Research survey.

ChangeWave, which polled more than 4,200 consumers in the U.S. and Canada, reported last week that only 10% of those with an iOS 6-powered iPhone said they had experienced a problem with Apple Maps, with the largest chunk of those -- 6% -- acknowledging the issue was "not much of a problem."

Nine out of 10 said they had not experienced any problem.

And while others -- analysts and public relations specialists -- had ranked the Apple Maps issue as a the one in 2010 over "Antennagate," consumers did not.

Two years ago, when ChangeWave polled on Antennagate -- the name Apple's former CEO Steve Jobs gave the uproar when iPhone 4 owners reported that signal strength plummeted and calls were interrupted if -- 35% of those surveyed then said the antenna issue was a problem.

In a research note, Paul Carton, director of research at ChangeWave, called the Maps snags "of marginal concern" to iPhone 5 and iOS 6 users.