A recent survey conducted by a consumer research firm known as On Device recently polled 16,000 Apple iPhone owners in the United States.
One key finding? iPhone users running iOS 6 were slightly less satisfied than iPhone users who still had iOS 5 loaded on their devices.
iOS 6 – which went live about a week ago – was greeted with a slew of complaints, primarily about Google Maps being replaced with Apple’s own home-baked map system.
Many users report Apple’s maps have serious issues with accuracy. And while the decline in satisfaction for iOS 6 users is slight – the drop is still significant because this is the first time
the company has observed such a phenomenon in regards to iOS.
“We have always seen an increase in device satisfaction as consumer upgrade their mobile operating system from one version to another,” On Device CEO Alistair Hill explained in an emailed statement to TechCrunch.
Hill also noted that satisfaction traditionally increases with each new version of the Android operating system as well. The jump from iOS 4 to iOS 5 included a number of improvements, making the decline in satisfaction between the latest operating system and its predecessor rather unusual.
The change in maps mentioned above is likely the largest cause for the decline in satisfaction. Many users who rely on their iPhone for navigation miss the Google Maps app. Then again, it should also be noted that general satisfaction with the iPhone is still very high, at least according to the survey.
Personally, I think Apple will certainly iron the wrinkles out of its maps service as quickly as possible, as the company has always been extremely focused on customer satisfaction. In the meantime, Google is reportedly working on a new Map app for iOS 6, although a precise launch date remains uncertain.
