There are a lot of issues with Apple’s new Map app in iOS 6, but there is one advantage, data usage. Apple’s new maps app uses as much as five times less data than Google Maps.

Our data experts performed an identical series of activities on Google Maps and Apple Maps that included searching for several US cities, addresses and airports and zooming in and out to locate specific locations. On Google Maps, the average data loaded from the cellular network for each step was 1.3MB. Apple Maps came in at 271KB – that’s approximately 80% less data! On some actions, such as zooming in to see a particular intersection, Apple Maps’ efficiency advantage edged close to 7X. — Onavo

This is a result of Apple’s use of vector graphics in their Maps app. » Apple Maps Using 80% Less Data Than Google Maps