Apple Maps uses one-fifth as much data as Google Maps

Apple’s new Maps application — part of its recent iPhone 5 and iOS 6 releases — has gotten a lot of flak for its relatively large number of errors and twisted 3D imagery. But the good news is, at least you’re saving a lot more data while loading those questionable maps than you do if you’re using Google Maps.

When you zoom in or out, new data needs to be downloaded to refresh the view. That can add up to a lot of data– and without an unlimited plan, extra data means potential overage fees.

While testing Apple Maps and Google Maps in various scenarios, analytics firm Onavo found that Apple Maps was much more data efficient– using just one-fifth as much data as Google Maps. Onavo calculated that Apple Maps on average downloaded about  271 kilobytes of data, in comparison to Google Maps’s average of about 1.3 megabytes.

In some cases like zooming in, Onavo found that Apple Maps appeared to use up to seven times less data than Google Maps. The secret behind Apple Maps’ data efficiency is Apple’s use of vector graphics, which need much less data for each time you zoom in or out of a map.

While this should be great news for Apple, it may be too little, too late. Last week Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly apologized for the Apple Maps errors, and even encouraged users to try Google Maps and other alternatives while Apple works to fix the bugs.  Google hasn’t made a version of Google Maps for iOS 6, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said his company has no plans to release one.

For now, iPhone owners seem to have taken Tim Cook’s advice seriously, because according to data from another analytics firm called Snappli, most iOS 6 users have already abandoned Apple Maps. While analyzing 5,000 of its iOS users, Snappli found that before iOS 6, 1 in 4 of them were using Google maps at least once a day. After iOS 6 came out, up to 35 percent of iOS 6 users were using Apple Maps– presumably many of them just trying it out. But now just one week later, only 1 in 25 iOS 6 users are still using Apple Maps.

The question is: is the reason behind the Great Apple Maps Exodus simply that all of those users who were trying it out really don’t need it– or did everyone simply give up on Apple Maps for now?

What do you think? Are you still using Apple Maps? If not, is the idea of saving more data enough to bring you back to it? Let us know in the comments.

To see a nice side-by-side comparison of Google Maps versus Apple Maps, check out this Gizmodo feature.