iOS 6 Increased Adoption Rate Due To China iPhone 5 Launch, Not Google Maps

It was a little over a week when Google Maps was re-released onto iOS, was on top of the App Store and earned itself over 10 million downloads in the first 48 hours of its availability, and because of that, mobile ad company MoPub deemed it being the sole reason why iOS 6 adoption grew 29%. But it seems that report may have been a inaccurate as other factors outside of Google Maps being made available probably weren’t considered in MoPub’s report.

Last week didn’t only mark the release of Google Maps, but it also marked the official release of the iPhone 5 in China, which comes pre-loaded with iOS 6. The iPhone 5 went on sale in China on December 13th, to which Apple announced three days later it sold over two million units within that time.

MoPub’s report was based off of global traffic, but new data released by advertising and analytics company Chitika looked at iOS 6 adoption rates in the U.S. and Canada the week Google Maps was released, and noted the adoption rate was unchanged at 71.5%. This result leads them to believe China’s iPhone 5 sales were probably the reason for the spike in iOS 6 adoption.

We know you Google Maps fans wanted to believe in the power of the application, but a 29% increase in iOS 6 adoption due to a single application seemed unlikely to begin with, don’t you think?