From the NY Times:
As Apple's Maps Stumbles, AOL's MapQuest Flourishes
By JENNA WORTHAM
Of all of the slick transit and GPS applications that could appeal to those frustrated by Apple, the front-runner might surprise you.
It's MapQuest, the free online mapping software owned by AOL.
The company's free application for the iPhone leapt into the No. 1 slot on the iTunes chart for the top 10 navigation apps last Friday, the same day the iPhone 5 went on sale.
Jennifer Asbury, a representative at MapQuest, was reluctant to attribute the surge in popularity to the release of the iPhone 5, although she did admit that there was a significant increase in downloads beginning last Friday. Ms. Asbury said the surge followed a trend the company had been seeing for the entire year, a 35 percent increase in downloads of its mobile maps product across all devices, including the iPhone, from the previous year. The company has 17 million users. The company said its turn-by-turn navigation has been a popular feature of its maps, on that was not available for the iPhone until Apple's latest release.
It's an unlikely victory for the company, particularly with so many sleek new transit apps around, including HopStop, Embark, Exit Strategy, Waze andTransit.
Many young people are more likely to associate MapQuest with stacks of paper, printed out from a home computer, probably by their parents, and carried into a car for consulting while driving to a holiday party. MapQuest seemed to be eclipsed in the era of in-car GPS and smartphones. But MapQuest said that the majority of its users were in their 30s and 40s and that the app was quite popular among Android smartphone owners, with downloads up 200 percent from the previous year. With iPhone owners, downloads are up 70 percent over last year.
"Even before last week, consumers have been seeking out our free navigation app and choosing our mobile solutions," said Ms. Asbury.