Apple's iOS 6 experienced significant surge in adoption in the past weeks not only on fresh sales numbers chalked up by the iPhone 5 but also on OS upgrades downloaded by iPhone 4S owners.

And Apple needs to thank Google for the uptick, according to reports by Chitika Data Solutions, which indicated that owners of the previous iPhone model rushed to download and install iOS 6 in the following days that Google Map became available.

"We observed since the launch of Google Maps for iOS 6 a 30 per cent increase in unique iOS 6 users, and we think it's related to Google Maps," TechCrunch reported citing aggregated data provided by Chitika and MoPub.

"Following Google Maps' release, Chitika Insights observed iOS 6 usage remain fairly flat from midnight on December 13th to midnight on December 17th 2012," said MacRumors, also pointing to the Chitika study.

"It verifies the hypothesis that people were actually holding back to upgrade until Google Maps was available," TechCrunch suggested.

This claim is backed up by Google, which reported Monday this week that Google Maps had attracted over 10 million downloads in the iOS platform alone 48 hours after the app was made available to the Apple App Store.

The report underscored consumers', which include loyal Apple fans, continuing disappointment with the new iPhone's map application, whose funky behaviour led to the ouster of long-time Apple executive Scott Forstall.

Apple CEO Tim Cook even issued an apology for the software debacle, a rarity for the tech giant that prides on its attention to details and product perfection.

Google Maps has so far garnered raves among leading tech experts, chief of them is Walt Mossberg from The Wall Street Journal.

In his review, Mr Mossberg suggested to smartphone owners on the Apple sphere to "go with the Google Maps," while the iPhone maker is figuring its way out of the iOS 6 map application mess.