The release of Google Maps on iOS 6 saw a 29 percent increase in the number of people upgrading to Apple's latest operating system for its iPhone and iPad according to research.

Analysis firm MoPub surveyed more than 1 billion ad impressions a day across more than 12,000 different apps and saw a sharp rise in the number of people using iOS 6 in the five days Google Maps was released.

The app used to be a standard feature on Apple's devices until the company dropped it when it released its iPhone 5 handset in September. Instead, Apple replaced Google Maps with its own offering, Map Apps, which was roundly criticized as inaccurate.

Since then, Google has been working on releasing a new version of Google Maps in the hopes that it would be accepted into Apple's App Store and become available to iOS 6 users.

Google Maps was released last week, recording 10 million downloads in the space of 48 hours. The Web site TechCrunch spoke to MoPub which released the latest data.

"We observed since the launch of Google Maps for iOS 6 a 30 percent increase in unique iOS 6 users, and we think it's related to Google Maps," MoPub's CEO told TechCrunch. "It verifies the hypothesis that people were actually holding back to upgrade until Google Maps was available."

The data shows a full 13 percent increase in iOS 6 users just from Monday to Wednesday, indicating many people switched to the newest Apple mobile operating system as soon as Google Maps' standalone app arrived in the App Store.

The data adds to the embarrassment for Apple which has been dealing with the fallout of its decision to distance itself from Google.