Apple Maps Up To 80% More Data Efficient Than Google’s

According to some new analysis from Onavo, the new Maps app from Apple loads data up to 7 times as fast as Google’s version. Now, I know, my first response was most likely the same as yours: “There’s because there’s 7 times less data”. But, read on:

”On Google Maps, the average data loaded from the cellular network for each step was 1.3MB. Apple Maps came in at 271KB — that’s approximately 80% less data! On some actions, such as zooming in to see a particular intersection, Apple Maps’ efficiency advantage edged close to 7X.”

It’s not got anything to do with which locations are missing or not. It’s more to do with the coding structure of the app. It uses vector-graphics, which is a much more efficient way to build the Maps program than Google’s own “raster” method.

Essentially, it loads exactly the same location’s data much quicker, because there’s much less to download each time you move along the road. I experienced this myself when I used Navigation back in July to get to a wedding down south. It’s impressively quick at updating the map as you move.