iPhone owners used Maps more than any other iOS app in 2012 according to Nielsen.
Maps was used by an average of 32.4 million iPhone owners a month, besting Facebook, which ranked second with 28.6 million users. Here's the full list:
Nielsen's data referred to the iOS 5 version of Maps, which was based on Google data. In September, Apple introduced its own version of Maps, which turned out to be a disaster for the company. After users complained, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued an apology. Earlier this month, Google Maps became available on iOS 6, netting 10 million downloads within its first 48 hours of release.
The Nielsen study only looked at data from January through October, so information on usage for Google Maps was not included. It's also worth noting that the data for Apple Maps is just based on 2 months of usage, as it was released in September along with iOS 6.
Not surprisingly, Google Search was the top app on Android with 44.4 million monthly users. Below is the list of the top 10 Android apps:
Google was also the top web destination in 2012, followed by Facebook and Yahoo:
Google's YouTube was the top online destination for video by far:
Finally, for the first time, smartphone owners in the U.S. outnumbered those with display phones, 56% to 44%. Of those phones, Google's Android operating system had the edge with a 52% share of the market vs. iOS's 35%.
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