Google Maps Is Losing iOS Users In The US

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Apple Maps Are Catching Up To Google Maps In The US (The Guardian)
According to new data from comScore, Google Maps was used by 43% of the U.S. mobile population while Apple Maps was used by just over 25%. That's about 59 million Google Maps users compared to 35 million for Apple Maps, which was introduced with iOS 6 in September 2012.

From September 2012 on, the audience for Google Maps in the U.S. was at a peak of 81 million users, meaning close to 23 million people have switched away from Google's maps app in that time period.

Even with the strong backlash to the errors in Apple Maps upon its initial launch, many iPhone and iPad users have held onto Apple's own version of a mobile maps app. Meaning, Google's attempt at offering a standalone app in order to penetrate the large base of heavy mobile users on iOS in the U.S. not been a successful venture.

Maps are an important avenue for both Apple and Google for advertising revenue, location-based user data, and for monitoring real-time driving traffic.

Google has been increasingly pushing advertisements within its maps apps in order to diversify its ad revenue stream a bit, likely because of falling desktop ad prices. So for Google, this war of attrition with its maps users on iOS may be costly. Read >

In other news...

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Broadband service company Sandvine has found that Netflix and YouTube make up over half of broadband web traffic in the U.S. For mobile, that number is at about 20% of web traffic. (All Things Digital)

Apple will begin manufacturing chips for its iPhones and iPads in New York. (Mashable)

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India has lured its largest smartphone manufacturer, Micromax, to again manufacture devices within India instead of China. Quartz has labeled Micromax the "Xiaomi of India." (Quartz)

The Google Play app store may be available on the next update to BlackBerry 10. (GigaOm)