iOS 6 upgrade rate soaring, despite glitchy Maps app

Apple released its latest iOS upgrade a little over a week ago, and it appears that its customers are quite eager to jump into the new version.

Techcrunch is reporting that 61 per cent of iPhone users and 41 per cent of iPad users have upgraded to the new operating system, no doubt lured in by the many cool features that it has to offer.

These upgrade numbers are far ahead of what Apple saw for the download rate of iOS 5, which struggled to break the 40 per cent mark after four full weeks on the market in October of 2011.

The cloud's the thing

Perhaps one of the reasons for the surge of early adopters is the fact that iOS 6 can be downloaded wirelessly.

One of the biggest features of last year's iOS 5 upgrade was that it would support over-the-air updates and syncing, and so a case could certainly be made for this enhancement contributing to the faster adoption rate of the new iOS 6.

Still, as all early adopters know, the desire to upgrade quickly comes with some pain.

Apple's newly unveiled Maps app - which comes bundled with iOS 6 - has been plagued by inaccurate mapping issues and has been criticized by users for an overall lack of detail, leading Apple's CEO Tim Cook to issue a rare formal apology for the state of the app.

It remains to be seen whether this apology will dampen the enthusiasm of Apple users to upgrade to iOS 6. If iPhone 5 sales numbers are any indication, it doesn't seem likely that users will hold the Maps misstep against Apple for long.