Ahead of iOS 7 reveal, Apple's iOS 6 is on 93% of iPhones

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
While next week will likely see the introduction of the newest version of iOS, a new study finds that the current version of Apple's mobile operating system is installed on more than 90 percent of all North American iPhones.

chitika


Chitika Insights took a look at iOS version distribution ahead of next week's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, finding that iOS 6 dominates both the iPhone and iPad with regard to North American mobile web traffic. Among iPhones sampled in Chitika's study, 92.7 percent were running some version of iOS 6. Among iPads, 82.9 percent were running the latest version of the OS.

Within the remaining versions of iOS, iOS 5 was the most popular on iPhones, with 5.5 percent traffic share. Version 4 had a 1.7 percent share, while iOS 3 had a 0.1 percent share.

Older versions fared a bit better on the iPad, where iOS 5 held a 13.4 percent share. Versions 4 and 3 had 3.8 and 0.6 percent shares, respectively.

chitika


Chitika explains the relatively large continued presence of older iOS versions on the iPad as likely being an outgrowth of the feature upgrades brought to the OS with iOS 6. That version, launched in September, added features ? e.g. FaceTime over cellular, turn-by-turn navigation ? that are most useful on a device with a cellular connection.

Chitika's study was based on an analysis of approximately 300 million web page views in the United States and Canada in late May.

Apple has remained largely quiet on what users can expect from iOS 7, though the company has confirmed that the mobile OS will be shown off in its latest incarnation at WWDC 2013. Among the rumored features are a new, flat interface and a possible radio service.

No matter the features, iOS 7 will likely see rapid adoption upon its release, as have previous versions. The current version, iOS 6, was on more than 60 percent of iPhones and iPads within a month of its release. By February, that figure had grown to more than 80 percent.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 60
    am8449am8449 Posts: 392member
    Those figures are quite astounding. I think it's partly due to iPhone users being excited about software updates.
  • Reply 2 of 60
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Love the way the title of the article is slyly misleading.

    And speaking of having most of its userbase on the latest OS, my one feature request for OS X 10.9 is that it's FREE! It's time for Apple to make the leap; it feels like the time is right.
  • Reply 3 of 60
    Another reason iPads may be on iOS 5 is that the iPad 1 can't upgrade past that. There are many of those still in use, with no hope for upgrades.
  • Reply 4 of 60
    Let's hope Tim Cook is not going to screw it up completely and ruin iOS with a Metro style iOS7 crap thing..
    If that would happen as rumored kept saying for months few would upgrade to a Metro crap thing.
  • Reply 5 of 60
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    jim phong wrote: »
    Let's hope Tim Cook is not going to screw it up completely and ruin iOS with a Metro style iOS7 crap thing..
    If that would happen as rumored kept saying for months few would upgrade to a Metro crap thing.
    Just curious what a "Metro style iOS style" is?
  • Reply 6 of 60
    skottichanskottichan Posts: 193member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post



    And speaking of having most of its userbase on the latest OS, my one feature request for OS X 10.9 is that it's FREE! It's time for Apple to make the leap; it feels like the time is right.


    I suppose you feel that today is the day to make the leap and go into work and not get a paycheck for your time, then, right? Fair's fair. :)

  • Reply 7 of 60
    starbird73starbird73 Posts: 538member
    Another reason iPads may be on iOS 5 is that the iPad 1 can't upgrade past that. There are many of those still in use, with no hope for upgrades.

    Excellent point, as iPads don't have the same "contract bound" upgrade path
  • Reply 8 of 60
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    am8449 wrote: »
    Those figures are quite astounding.

    It's also misleading.

    First, it's a measure of web usage - not the percentage installed. It would be expected that newer, more powerful phones would be over-represented among heavy web users and people who own older phones might not use the web as much.

    Even then, it's not accurate because this is a measure of people's access of the sites that Chitika monitors - which is not likely to be representative of the web as a whole.

    I don't doubt that iOS users upgrade pretty frequently because it's free and very simple, but I don't buy the 93% figure.
  • Reply 9 of 60
    focherfocher Posts: 687member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Jim Phong View Post



    Let's hope Tim Cook is not going to screw it up completely and ruin iOS with a Metro style iOS7 crap thing..

    If that would happen as rumored kept saying for months few would upgrade to a Metro crap thing.


    There is a pretty big difference between the concept of a flatter (flat) design versus the Modern Windows UI (Metro), which has a flat design but that's only the visual styling of the interface. The Modern Windows UI goes far beyond just this aspect with its tiling metaphor. Personally, I think tiling sounds nice as a concept but works terribly in reality.

  • Reply 10 of 60
    constable odoconstable odo Posts: 1,041member
    In comparison to the Android OS about 46% of users are still running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which was LAST updated in September 2011 nearly two years ago. Jelly Bean, Android's latest OS is on about 11% of all Android devices. Those Gingerbread numbers aren't going to go away until all those Gingerbread devices end up as landfill. At least around 30% of Android devices are running the previous Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. It's definitely going to take another whole year for most of those Ice Cream Sandwich devices to be tossed into the trashcan. One might basically say that the majority of Android devices will always be running an outdated Android OS which will really mess up the Android ecosystem due to so many non-upgradeable devices being in service.

    At any one point in time, around 90% of Apple iPhones will have a current OS, while only about 15% Android smartphones will be running a current Android OS. Those are pretty low numbers for Android OS updates. Fragmentation is going to beat the hell out of the Android ecosystem. Wall Street always ignores this down-side of Android OS. All they see is how many devices that can be sold on the Android platform. Apple is going to be able to monetize the iOS platform to a much greater degree.
  • Reply 11 of 60
    jragosta wrote: »
    It's also misleading.

    First, it's a measure of web usage - not the percentage installed. It would be expected that newer, more powerful phones would be over-represented among heavy web users and people who own older phones might not use the web as much.

    Even then, it's not accurate because this is a measure of people's access of the sites that Chitika monitors - which is not likely to be representative of the web as a whole.

    I don't doubt that iOS users upgrade pretty frequently because it's free and very simple, but I don't buy the 93% figure.

    Well it's more accurate than Google's new numbers. They recently started only using data from devices that access the Google Play. They're trying to report lower Froyo and Gingerbread install bases...and it seems to be working. No one called them on it last month or this month really.
  • Reply 12 of 60
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Probably not Sen. McCain's....

    lol
  • Reply 13 of 60
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Silly folks.
    Jellybean's 40% > iOS 6's 93% just like Sammy's 10MM shipped in one month > IPhone 5's 5MM sold in one weekend.

    /s
  • Reply 14 of 60

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post



    In comparison to the Android OS about 46% of users are still running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which was LAST updated in September 2011 nearly two years ago. Jelly Bean, Android's latest OS is on about 11% of all Android devices. Those Gingerbread numbers aren't going to go away until all those Gingerbread devices end up as landfill. At least around 30% of Android devices are running the previous Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. It's definitely going to take another whole year for most of those Ice Cream Sandwich devices to be tossed into the trashcan. One might basically say that the majority of Android devices will always be running an outdated Android OS which will really mess up the Android ecosystem due to so many non-upgradeable devices being in service.


     


    Android certainly is fragmented and pales in comparison to iOS, but your numbers are way off. JellyBean is on 34%, not 11, Ice Cream Sandwich is 25% and 2.3 is down to 36%. In another month JellyBean should be the most used, still taking way too long for the most current version to be the most used.


    http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

  • Reply 15 of 60


    Jragosta, I'm part of the Chitika Insights research team. For every study we examine online ad impressions from more than 300,000 websites across a wide variety of verticals (e.g. retail, news sites, B2B etc.), with those publishers ranging from the Alexa Top 10 to smaller blogs. In regards to your second point, while it is likely that those with newer devices browse more than those with older devices, our data points to users of the larger existing install base of older iPhone models (1-4S) still commanding a sizable majority of iPhone-based Web traffic in North America.


     


    Hope that helps! Feel free to check out our full methodology at the link below for some more details:


    http://chitika.com/insights/methodology

  • Reply 16 of 60
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Android certainly is fragmented and pales in comparison to iOS, but your numbers are way off. JellyBean is on 34%, not 11, Ice Cream Sandwich is 25% and 2.3 is down to 36%. In another month JellyBean should be the most used, still taking way too long for the most current version to be the most used.
    http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

    Yep. Right on target the Google shills throw out information intended to mislead.

    From your chart: "Note: Beginning in April, 2013, these charts are now built using data collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store."

    Clearly, newer devices are more likely to install new apps than older devices, so those figures inflate the number of newer devices by a pretty large margin. When you look at installed base, the numbers you're objecting to are actually correct.
  • Reply 17 of 60
    ericthehalfbeeericthehalfbee Posts: 4,485member
    Well it's more accurate than Google's new numbers. They recently started only using data from devices that access the Google Play. They're trying to report lower Froyo and Gingerbread install bases...and it seems to be working. No one called them on it last month or this month really.
    Googles data has always reflected those that can access Google Play. That's where activations come from - devices that can't access Play aren't counted.

    The big change they made are devices that have "recently" accessed Google Play. This weeds out older devices that people might not be using as much. It's more useful for developers as they need to know who's using their phones, but the fandroids like to take the data and claim JB is on 34% of ALL Android phones, which isn't true.

    You're right, though, nobody calls them on it but I still poke fun at the people who still think its a breakdown of all devices.
  • Reply 18 of 60
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    skottichan wrote: »
    I suppose you feel that today is the day to make the leap and go into work and not get a paycheck for your time, then, right? Fair's fair. :)

    That depends. If he can get paid for simply showing up then he'll likely then work for free. Do you think those developing for iOS or iCloud aren't getting paid simply because Apple offers these free of charge? I doubt he's saying Apple shouldn't get paid for their work on Mac OS X, but rather that offering Mac OS X for free with Macs will increase the number of people that update which could lower Apple's costs in supporting older HW at the Genius Bar and over the phone, and add value to those looking to buy a new Mac if the updates are free and offered at the same time across the line. This seems to have worked out very well for all their products.
  • Reply 19 of 60
    steven n.steven n. Posts: 1,229member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by thataveragejoe View Post


     


    Android certainly is fragmented and pales in comparison to iOS, but your numbers are way off. JellyBean is on 34%, not 11, Ice Cream Sandwich is 25% and 2.3 is down to 36%. In another month JellyBean should be the most used, still taking way too long for the most current version to be the most used.


    http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html



    That is for only devices that access the Play store so older devices are much less likely to be counted. I will say this is the number that really interests developers but it is not an accurate account of the share of devices out there.


     


    Just like this banana study is about web usage (though the article is very clear on that) and not actual device figures in use.

  • Reply 20 of 60
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    A single point of sale,
    A single company creating the device,
    They create the hardware and software, designed in congruence,
    You use someone else's iPhone, and you know how it works, exactly like your own,
    You upgrade the OS software right from the build-in app,
    ...

    93%, or whatever high number it actually is...

    I like their strategy, I like it a lot.
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