ChangeWave: Mapgate and Lightning woes did not affect massive iPhone 5 buying

According to a new study by ChangeWave Research, a 451 Research company, “massive iPhone 5 buying” continues despite a string of at times sensationalist reporting of various teething problems with the handset, ranging from the unwarranted cellular data usage and light leakage issues to the purple haze and virtual keyboard flickering woes.

More interesting than that, the study found that so-called Mapgate and incompatibilities with 30-pin accessories brought upon users by Apple’s new miniature Lightning connector literally had zero effect on iPhone 5 sales…

According to the study, based on a poll of 4,270 primarily North American consumers:

“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,” said Dr. Paul Carton, ChangeWave’s VP of Research. “Rather, the survey results show both issues hardly rank as bumps in the road.”

Here’s your chart.

As you can see for yourself, nearly two-thirds of respondents say they are Likely, Very Likely or Somewhat Likely to buy an iPhone 5 in the future (Likely: 32 percent; Very Likely: 19 percent; Somewhat Likely: 13 percent).

Perhaps even more telling in light of Mapgate is this chart describing the likelihood of buying the iPhone 5 versus iPhone 4S.

Twice as much people are Very Likely to buy an iPhone 5 than a 4S.

And guess what percentage of those Unlikely to buy the iPhone 5 said their decision was guided by Reported Problems With Apple Maps?

Zero percent.

The main reason some people did not buy Apple’s new phone: No Need – Their Current Cell Phone is Sufficient (61 percent).

Dropping a Google Maps backend in favor of its own solution is Somewhat of a Problem for a mere six percent of respondent and Very Big Problem for a paltry three percent.

A comparison of vector maps from Google (left) and Apple (right). Setting Label Size to Small in Maps section of Settings in iOS 6 will increase the number of labels.

As for Lightning, when asking those Likely to buy the iPhone 5 to say how much of a problem the Lightning port issue is for them, nearly one-third (31 percent) say it is Not Much of a Problem, with 26 percent responding this is No Problem At All.

Six percent say it’s a Very Big Problem and it’s Somewhat of a Problem for 31 percent.

Zero percent cited the Lightning adapter as the reason they are Unlikely to buy the iPhone 5.

Zero. Percent.

And there you have it.

Here’s to hoping that Eric Schmidt is aware of these numbers.

Of course, this isn’t to prove that Maps issues do not exist or that some users are not inconvenied by the new Lightning interconnect and the need to buy special adapters and cables to hook up their legacy 30-pin accessories to Lightning-enabled iOS devices (currently, the latest iPhone, iPod touch and iPod nano).

Quite the contrary, Lightning is a pain and Maps issues persist. Another study found that iOS 6 actually hurt Apple’s sterling customer service reputation, with Apple replacing Google Maps with its own service seemingly the root cause.

I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle, as often is the case.

Apple Maps need improving, but the system is far, far from being terrible. Mapgate has definitely been blown out of proportion, just like Antennagate was in the summer of 2010.

In fact, there’s a chart for that, too.

As for the Lightning revolution, yes it’s taking a toll on user convenience.

It’s called progress, folks.

Agreed?