Apple's iOS 12 installed on 80 percent of compatible devices
Adoption statistics released by Apple on Monday reveal 80 percent of compatible iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are now running the company's current generation iOS 12 mobile operating system.
The figures, announced in an update to Apple's App Store support webpage, also show iOS 12 as installed on 83 percent of devices released during the last four years. As with past iOS versions, adoption rates of the current iteration operating system have enjoyed a steady upward trajectory since launch in September.
Usage of last 2017's iOS 11 is down to 12 percent, while older operating systems occupy a 5 percent share of devices released in the past four years and 8 percent of all compatible devices.
Apple's statistics were gleaned from App Store visits logged on Feb. 12, 2019.
The latest iOS 12 has seen comparatively rapid uptake over its lifetime. Adoption rates hit 53 percent less than a month after initial release, a number that jumped to 70 percent in December. By comparison, iOS 11 was installed on only 59 percent of devices in December 2017.
Third-party market research firms estimate even faster upgrade rates, with figures from Mixpanel putting iOS 12 adoption at 75 percent in late November.
Most recently, official statistics issued in January pegged adoption rates at 78 percent of devices released over the past four years and 75 percent of all devices.
Introduced alongside iPhone XS and XR in September, iOS 12 delivers a host of new features to customer smartphones and tablets, including powerful photography tools, a system to monitor and manage screen time, Group FaceTime, the ARKit 2 augmented reality platform, new Memoji characters and more. Perhaps helping to explain the year-over-year increase in adoption is Apple's focus on improved OS performance for older devices, a tentpole feature for iOS 12.
Apple continues to build on its latest OS release, with the current iOS 12.2 beta tipping a redesigned Remote interface for Control Center, Siri recommendation integration for Today at Apple sessions, UI tweaks in News and minor bug fixes.
The figures, announced in an update to Apple's App Store support webpage, also show iOS 12 as installed on 83 percent of devices released during the last four years. As with past iOS versions, adoption rates of the current iteration operating system have enjoyed a steady upward trajectory since launch in September.
Usage of last 2017's iOS 11 is down to 12 percent, while older operating systems occupy a 5 percent share of devices released in the past four years and 8 percent of all compatible devices.
Apple's statistics were gleaned from App Store visits logged on Feb. 12, 2019.
The latest iOS 12 has seen comparatively rapid uptake over its lifetime. Adoption rates hit 53 percent less than a month after initial release, a number that jumped to 70 percent in December. By comparison, iOS 11 was installed on only 59 percent of devices in December 2017.
Third-party market research firms estimate even faster upgrade rates, with figures from Mixpanel putting iOS 12 adoption at 75 percent in late November.
Most recently, official statistics issued in January pegged adoption rates at 78 percent of devices released over the past four years and 75 percent of all devices.
Introduced alongside iPhone XS and XR in September, iOS 12 delivers a host of new features to customer smartphones and tablets, including powerful photography tools, a system to monitor and manage screen time, Group FaceTime, the ARKit 2 augmented reality platform, new Memoji characters and more. Perhaps helping to explain the year-over-year increase in adoption is Apple's focus on improved OS performance for older devices, a tentpole feature for iOS 12.
Apple continues to build on its latest OS release, with the current iOS 12.2 beta tipping a redesigned Remote interface for Control Center, Siri recommendation integration for Today at Apple sessions, UI tweaks in News and minor bug fixes.
Comments
Curious minds want to know why Google stopped updating this page.
Only one of the best devices in the history of man!
Ai has become my one-stop shop for all things Apple. The videos, hints, reviews, news and podcasts are excellent!
It used to be MacWorld magazine back in the day.
Best.
That's not the same thing as
I have older but compatible devices that I don't bother with iOS updates anymore. I've been bitten by performance problems with old-device-on-latest-iOS too many times before.
FWIW about 7 weeks or so after the latest Android version (Pie) was released last August over 75% of Google Pixel owners had already updated to it which is pretty darn impressive don't you think?
Pixels are the only devices that Google themselves can directly offer OS updates to of course. All the others are simply licensees, some of them quite speedy with updates but many others not so much.
The camera in my iPhone XS Max is great.
Talk about moving the goalposts for the knockoffs!!
Android is a phone manufacturer when comparing to iPhone sales. Android is software when complaining about all the malware it carries (not the manufacturers fault). Android is a single phone when comparing specs/innovation to iPhone. Only Pixel counts when comparing OS updates.
Android is always "evolving". lol
Mistake #2: Claiming "move the goalposts" to the wrong person. Adding "whaddabout Android" to the discussion serves no good purpose in the first place does it? Apples to Oranges, yeah they're both fruit.
Just as Apple the company is both the OS provider and "manufacturer" of iPhones, Google the company is both the OS provider and "manufacturer" of Pixels. Anyone else would be a licensee or AOSP user and dance to their own music.
I assume there must be some reason this metric is tracked, I just don't get what it might be.
First, it allows simplification for developers. If I have to write an app that works on 10 different versions of the operating system, then I'm going to either not use newer features or I'm going to have to write lots of cludges for handling the older operating systems. This means lots of bugs as the code gets complicated trying to handle everything, and bad reviews because some users can access advertised features. There are also bugs on some versions of operating systems, but not others. That means even without new features, I'll have to do lots more testing and still end up with more bugs. Android has mechanisms for dealing with this (basically, the developers can use some new features by including a support pack produced by Google in their code), but this doesn't work as well, and there are still issues that make it more costly and/or more buggy. By keeping everyone up to date, Apple is hoping for better apps that use the new features that come out every year, which in turn encourages users to buy their devices.
A second possible reason is expense for Apple. Supporting older versions of operating systems costs money because they need to continue to fix security holes, and the longer an operating system is around, the more security holes are found. I doubt this is as big a consideration as the first reason.
Um no, I'm explaining the logic of Apple haters. They compare all iWannabes to iPhone when it comes to sales. When you bring up the software problem they morph android again and say "well that's not [insert one of hundreds of manufacturers here]s fault. That's androids fault."
Whaddabout android is fun because it pisses you off with truth.
No one (even those who claim android is better) gives a turd about Pixel, adding to the irony.