iPhone 5 Sales Not Affected by Faulty Maps, Research Shows

There has been a lot of speculation surrounding the

of Apple's

first mapping application. Some believe that it

hurt sales of the iPhone 5 while others say that it

.

In September,

conducted a survey of 4,270 "primarily North American" consumers to find out if anyone actually chose not to buy the new smartphone because of the Maps app or the expensive Lightning connector. According to ChangeWave's findings,

was affected by these elements. Researchers started by asking how likely it is that consumers would buy the iPhone 5 for themselves or someone else in the future. Nineteen percent said they were "Very Likely" to buy an iPhone 5, compared to just 10 percent who said they would buy an iPhone 4S at this time last year. An additional 13 percent of respondents said that they were "Somewhat Likely" to buy an iPhone 5, compared to 11.5 percent who were interested in the iPhone 4S. ChangeWave then asked those "Likely" consumers for their opinion of the new Lightning port. Most said that it was "Not Much of a Problem" (31 percent) or "No Problem at All" (26 percent). Other respondents disagreed, saying that it was a "Very Big Problem" (six percent) or "Somewhat of a Problem" (31 percent). ChangeWave did not say how the remaining six percent responded. Based on that data, it might appear that the new Lightning adapter could have had a negative impact on iPhone 5 sales. But when ChangeWave asked consumers who were "Unlikely" to buy an iPhone 5 to explain why,

cited the Lightning adapter. Similarly, none of the survey respondents said that they chose not to buy an iPhone 5 because of the reported issues relating to the Maps app. Among those who

buy an iPhone 5 or use iOS 6 with an older device, 90 percent claimed that they either did not consider the Maps issues to be a problem or had not experienced any problems. "Despite the media attention surrounding both the Apple Maps issue and the Apple Lightning port issue, neither has had an impact on the massive numbers of buyers queuing up to buy the iPhone 5," Dr. Paul Carton, ChangeWave's VP of Research, said in an e-mail announcing the results. "Rather, the survey results show both issues hardly rank as bumps in the road." In fact, 61 percent of those who were "Unlikely" to buy an iPhone 5 said that it was because there was no need to switch devices because their current cell phone was sufficient.